Avengers Noir
by Cadet Deming
Summary: An alternate universe Noir mystery set in 1949. Natasha Romanoff is an assistant to private investigator Clint Barton. Loki hires them to solve the murder of his father Odin. But who is the real killer, and will Natasha survive with her life and heart intact? Eventual Natasha/Loki. Involves all Avengers. COMPLETED
1. Chapter 1

Avengers Noir Chapter 1

By Cadet Deming

In the spirit of the Marvel Noir comic series, an alternate universe version of the Avengers characters set in 1949 New York. They have the same personalities, but no powers. Rated T for violence and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Mystery/Suspense/Noir

**New York City, 1949**

My real name is Natasha Romanoff, but everyone calls me the Black Widow even though I'm a redhead. The War left too many widows behind. They told us girls to get married, have babies, live happily ever after, and depend on our husbands to take care of us. My husband was killed on the beach at Normandy, so I had to learn to depend on myself.

I was lucky enough to find work as an assistant to a private eye named Clint Barton. It's been paying my bills for the past year. A little camera work to catch a cheating husband here, a runaway case there. Nothing too exciting, until the day he walked in and changed everything for me.

The bells on the office door chimed with metallic anticipation. A tall man entered.

"Clint Barton? I'm Loki Odinson, here for my two o'clock appointment about the murder."

His accent was upper-crust English, something I wasn't used to hearing on the immigrant melting pot streets of the City.

"Have a seat," Clint gestured. "My girl Natasha will bring you coffee."

I bit my lip when Clint called me, "My girl." Things were a bit more complicated than that between us.

Loki's gaze swung between Clint and me. I couldn't tell if his eyes were green or blue. There was a definite sharpness in his expression.

Loki said, "I'd prefer tea."

He folded his raincoat over and handed it to me without saying another word, as if I was his servant. I sensed he was used to being waited on without question. Part of me wanted to drop his coat on the floor, but Clint and I both needed a paying client.

The coat was neatly pressed. Its tag revealed it was a tailor made Savile Row raincoat. I expected it to smell like Old Money, but instead it smelled like lilacs.

I tossed it on a hanger and went to the office's tiny kitchenette area. I pulled out some Peking Orange tea from Chinatown and boiled water in a pot, listening to Clint and Loki discuss his pressing issue.

Loki said, "My father Odin was brutally murdered last night. We're trying to keep it out of the papers, but money can't buy everything."

Clint asked, "Are the police investigating?"

"Of course, but that's part of the problem. The Chief Investigator is Steve Rogers."

"Captain America? I know him. He's a war hero, and one of the only guys on the force that isn't dirty."

Loki snickered. "Everyone is dirty, if you look deeply enough."

I wondered what sort of dirt was hiding underneath Loki's pristine, classy surface. The water had finished boiling and I placed a tea bag in it. Tea looked so much like mud and dirt, staining clear water with its blackness.

Clint said, "Do you think Steve Rogers had something to do with your father's murder?"

Loki laughed. "Good heavens, no. The problem is Rogers is friends with my older brother Thor. They're comrades in arms and served in a platoon together in World War 2. I'm concerned about…objectivity."

I walked back in the room silently. It was a trick I'd picked up over the years. I just change the angle of my feet and become as silent as a cat. Or a spider.

Clint said, "You're afraid the police will consider you a suspect. Maybe you want a lawyer instead."

"I have a rock solid alibi. I was at home with my wife Sigyn and our three children. Besides, I'm the second born son. I'm not in a position to inherit his fortune. Thor is."

Clint said, "Who do you think really killed your father?"

"Well if I bloody knew that I wouldn't need to hire the likes of you, would I? He had a million enemies and business rivals: Tony Stark, Laufey the Icelander, Thanos the Greek."

I leaned next to Loki's shoulder and placed the drink on Clint's desk. Loki jumped in his seat. I was surprised he could move so quickly.

"Sorry," I said with mock innocence.

Loki stared at me for a moment and then at the cup. He sniffed it as if he was checking for poison, took one sip and set it back on the desk.

Clint asked, "What do you want me to do exactly?"

"Get in places the police won't, consider suspects the detectives are treating with too much courtesy, and clear my name."

Clint asked, "How much are you offering?"

Loki wrote a number on a card and handed it to Clint.

I peeked at it and said, "I think you need to add another zero."

Loki said to Clint, "I think your secretary needs to learn her place."

"I'm not his secretary. I'm his assistant. For a job with the level of danger you're asking us to get into, I believe we need hazard pay. Tony Stark has more money than Rockefeller, Laufey is still suspected of 3 previous gangland-style murders, and I haven't heard much about Thanos, but the Greek Mafia is bad news. If you're afraid…"

Loki interjected, "I'm not afraid. I'm just…concerned."

I softened my voice and touched his shoulder. "There's no shame in being afraid of a murderer, or a police investigation. We can help you, but pay us what we're worth on this."

The room was silent except for the hum of the radiator and ticking of a clock. Clint flashed me a look that silently stated, "You better not have screwed this up."

After what felt like an eternity, Loki said, "Very well then. I'll throw in 50% more to retain you, and another 50% bonus if you solve the crime before the police do. "

Clint held out his hand, "We have a deal."

Loki shook it and said, "Thank you. Will Ms. Natasha escort me out?"

He sounded more like he was ordering than asking me, but I gathered his belongings and walked with him to the elevator. After the elevator door closed, I felt slightly uneasy. I wasn't quite sure what to make of him. Hell, I didn't even know for a fact that he didn't kill his own father.

Loki said, "You're not what I expected you to be."

"How so?"

"You're feisty. And very intelligent…for a woman."

"Thank you, I think."

He asked, "Are you married?"

I held my hands up, showing him my ring less fingers. "War widowed."

"I'm sorry. You seem far too pretty to be single."

He moved a fraction closer to me. I watched the arrow on the elevator move from the fifth to the fourth floor.

I said, "Pretty doesn't do much if all of the good men are killed on the battlefield or married."

I couldn't help but stare at the wedding band on his finger.

He smiled and his eyes crinkled up. His irises were definitely blue, a brilliant blue. It made him look older and more world-weary.

"Maybe what you really need is a bad man." He said mischievously. "It's been a pleasure meeting you. I look forward to…doing business with you and Mr. Barton."

To be continued.


	2. Chapter 2

Avengers Noir Chapter 2

By Cadet Deming

Thank you so much to the people who read and review. Rated T for violence and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Mystery/Suspense/Noir. This is eventual BlackFrost, Happy Halloween and good luck to the people affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Clint parked the car behind the row of Cadillacs and Chryslers on the cemetery road. Every car looked polished and clean. We were surrounded by large headstones and mourners in black. Not the faded black of the working class, but the rich, dyed wool ink black of captains of industry and High Society types .

The concentration of New York's wealthy elite in one place put me on guard. It could be a tempting target for anyone. We didn't know if Odin's murder was an isolated incident, or the opening shots of a gang war.

I searched the crowd for signs of police. I saw a few men with tell-tale gun bulges in their pockets, but couldn't tell whose side they were on.

Fortunately, it wasn't raining. All the better for Clint to take pictures of the crowd.

He showed me his latest contraption. "This beauty here can take a photograph from 100 feet away, and it's only a foot wide!"

I smiled. "Does this mean you're giving up on trick arrows?"

"Actually…" Clint unscrewed the flash light bulb from the camera and pulled out an arrow.

"You're still bringing a bow and arrow for what could be a gunfight."

Clint pulled his jacket open, revealing a holstered pistol. "I'm always prepared. I'll take photos around the perimeter; you work your magic with the mourners."

I appraised the group gathering around Odin's coffin. A beautiful woman stood directly behind it. She looked older, but regal. People swarmed to her and touched her with the gestures of condolences. I assumed she was Frigga, Loki's mother and Odin's grieving widow.

I flashed back to my own husband Alexei's funeral. It was just me and the priest without a court of well-wishers. A lonely act of a final good-bye as opposed to this circus of social niceties.

"Where's our benefactor Loki?" I asked.

I didn't want to join the group without touching base with him first.

Clint scanned the area with hawk-like precision and pointed. "Over there, with his family."

Loki walked from the East. Three children dallied behind him, followed by a woman with a wide black hat and veil.

He greeted me. "Natasha, so glad you could make it. These are my sons Vali and Narvi, my daughter Hela, and my wife Sigyn."

Sigyn lifted her veil up and I reached out to shake her hand. Her grip was limp and passive. She looked pretty, but at the same time mousy. I could see dark bags under her eyes and her lids were swollen from crying.

Loki looked a little gaunt, but there were no other signs of grief. It seemed a bit off that Sigyn the daughter-in-law would be sadder than Loki over his own father's death. Perhaps she had been crying about something else entirely?

Hela stepped forward. She wore a miniaturized version of her mother's hat and veil. She lifted up half of the veil and revealed the right side of her face. Her visible eye was the same piercing blue color as Loki's.

Hela asked, "Are you going to see the body too? I wanna see the body."

Hela smiled. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt that she was too young to understand the concept of death.

Narvi whimpered, "I thought grandpa was just sleeping. You said he was just sleeping."

He looked confused and about to cry.

Sigyn put her hand on Narvi's head. "He is sleeping, in a way. He's sleeping on the Rainbow Bridge that will carry him to heaven."

Hela said, "How do you know he's in heaven? What if he's in hell?"

Vali burst out sobbing, "I don't want Grandpa Odin to be in hell!"

I wanted to do something to interject, but felt out of my element. Men I could influence. Women I could at least relate to. Children were a different breed entirely. I didn't like or dislike them, I just wasn't used to them.

Sigyn said, "Grandpa Odin is in heaven. Please don't say that other word."

Hela said, "You mean Hell? Why can't I say it? It's part of my name. Hela. Hela! HELL-A!"

Vali's sobs turned into shrieks.

Loki put his hands up to his forehead. "Sigyn, please take the children back to the car until they calm down. I have business matters to discuss with Natasha."

Hela protested, "But I wanna see the body!"

"Yes dear, " Sigyn sighed.

She grabbed both boys by the hands and led them away.

Hela shouted, "Look I found a lit cigarette!"

Sigyn said, "Please don't set your brothers on fire…again."

Loki gestured for me to walk with him.

I said, "I don't mean to take you away from your family. Your wife seems very…patient. And your children are very…lively."

He said, "Thank you. Hela reminds me of me when I was her age."

"A budding psychopath."

"Excuse me?"

"I said there are cigarette butts in our path."

Loki changed the direction of his stride.

I asked, "So who should I be focusing on?"

"The funeral is open to business associates. The gathering at the estate afterwards is for family and friends of the family. You'll meet more suspects here, but you'll have more intimate access to people later. Where is Barton? I'm paying for both of you."

"Clint is photographing everything from the outskirts. He sees better from far away."

"What exactly is your relationship with Clint?"

I stiffened but kept a straight face. "We're business partners. And friends. Just friends now."

Loki cocked a skeptical eyebrow at me. "Now? So you were something more in the past."

"I really don't see how my personal life is your concern. I'm a private person."

Loki lowered his voice. "I'm telling you my own personal information. I'm giving you access far above your station in life. The connections you make over the next few weeks if you play your cards correctly could bring you business for years. It's only fair dealings if I show you mine, then you show me yours. Besides, I find you interesting and want to get to know you better. Is that so wrong?"

He flashed a pearly white smile at me. I noticed Loki seemed to slide between treating people with cold, patronizing dismissal and gentlemanly charm. I wondered which persona was closest to his true personality. I played along with his charming act.

"Alright then." I said. "Clint did court me years ago. Then I met Alexei Shostakov, and I ended up marrying him instead. He seemed like a better match. We were both Russian and wanted the same things in life. We looked good together on paper. "

"Good together on paper is a polite way of saying 'boring.'

I suspected Loki was speaking of his own marriage, but continued, "Alexei unfortunately died before we'd been married a year. After the War I had a hard time finding work. Being Russian isn't exactly fashionable in America. People automatically assume I'm a communist. And with a last name of Romanoff, I couldn't consider moving to the Soviet Union."

He looked thoughtful. "Romanoff…The Romanov Dynasty. Are you related to the deposed Russian Royal Family?'

"Distantly. Very distantly. Russians take the Law of Primogeniture very seriously. The first born son inherits everything. Everyone else is out of luck. The only thing my parents inherited was the name."

"We Scandinavian families are the same way. My father told Thor and me that we were the equivalent of American royalty, and had a responsibility to act like it. He implied we had an equal chance at inheriting the business. I spent most of my life preparing to follow in my father's footsteps. I majored in management and finance when I really wanted to go into theater. I married a nice Scandinavian girl my mother fixed me up with because it would make him happy. I helped run the company while Thor was fighting in Germany. It wasn't until Thor returned from the War that father announced he was the official heir. It was as if he kept stringing me along as a backup in case Thor died on the battlefield, and the moment he returned I was pushed to the side. I was the spare in case something happened to his real favorite son. He used me. He just used me."

I stayed silent. Part of me felt sorry for him, but part of me couldn't deny that he admitted to a major motive for wanting Odin dead.

The anger etched across his features melted into a look of embarrassment, and then he flashed another grin at me.

He changed the subject. "You still haven't told me about how you ended up working with Clint."

"Oh, that. We reconnected in New York last year. He gave me a job when no one else would. Enough time had passed that we could be friends with no hard feelings. Plus he had a fiancée who's a real nice girl. They're still engaged actually."

"And that doesn't bother you at all? Or Clint's fiancée? Most women wouldn't want their future husband working with his ex-girlfriend."

I shrugged. "Nothing good comes from envy. It's dangerous."

"Ambition can rise from envy."

"Sometimes ambition can be the most dangerous thing of all."

Loki looked down at the ground.

I heard a loud crack and turned. A flock of crows flew by, cawing and cackling.

A man bellowed, "YOU DARE SHOW YOUR FACE HERE LAUFEY! HAVE YOU NO DECENCY?!"

"Oh, joy," Loki sighed. "Thor is here."

We walked towards Loki's brother. I recognized him from pictures. He had long blonde hair, broad shoulders, and an imposing presence.

The men he faced were even more imposing. I don't know what was in the water in Iceland, but Laufey and his crew were giants. The shortest among them must have been six feet and seven inches tall.

The man I assumed was Laufey said, "I'm here to show my respects. Your father and I were business colleagues for years before you were even born, boy."

Thor said, "Your presence shows disrespect. Tis no secret you were the man who murdered him."

"That's a serious charge to make in public. You mess with a man's reputation, you mess with his livelihood. You threaten my livelihood; you best start worrying about your own."

Laufey and his gang pulled their jackets to the side, revealing not just pistols but Tommy Guns.

To be continued

**Author's Note: Sigyn is Loki's wife in both Norse mythology and Marvel comics, although the comics have written her out. In both cases she's loyal to him. He's…not the greatest husband in the world to her. This story will be eventual Natasha-Loki, and I do have a plan for getting around the marriage issue without making Natasha a home wrecker.**

**I hope I'm not getting too repetitive with the World War Two references, but since the story takes place in 1949, I figure "The War" would be the defining event in these character's lives. **


	3. Chapter 3

Avengers Noir Chapter 3

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Thank you so much to the people who read and review!

Thor pulled a gun out and flicked off the safety. His gun handle was decorated with a swirl of Nordic rune-like patterns. Laufey and his crew aimed their weapons at him.

"Get behind me," Loki said.

I took up his offer of being a human shield and slid behind his back. Nearby, people were hurrying away from the commotion. Apparently the High Society guests didn't think Odin's funeral was worth dying over.

I looked up at the surrounding trees. If Clint was keeping an eye on things, he had to be around here somewhere.

Thor said, "You dare threaten me at my own father's funeral? I will kill you for that!"

Laufey growled, "You dare insult me anywhere. Stand down or face the consequences."

I couldn't bear not doing anything and walked between the snarling men.

"Natasha," Loki called out. "Have you gone mad?"

Thor stared at me with a look of perplexity. The Icelanders curled their lips up in disdain.

"Get out of the way woman," Laufey said. "This is no concern of yours."

Thor asked me, "Please madam. Leave before you get hurt."

I tried to put on my best disarming "I'm just a girl" impression. "Look, I don't know much about why you guys are fighting. But do you really want to open fire in front of all of these people? If someone actually dies, there's no way whoever pulled the trigger won't fry for it with this many witnesses."

Laufey's underlings' expressions turned to worried. They all looked to Laufey as if they were waiting for his order. I saw they all had identical blue tattoos on their wrists in shapes similar to Thor's gun.

One of Laufey's goons said, "Move it bimbo. Crowds get confused about what they think they see. People are too smart to testify against us, if they know what's good for them."

Loki interjected, "She's not a bimbo."

Loki took a few strides forward but didn't enter the dead center line of fire where I stood. His gaze shifted between me and the men who surrounded me as if he was appraising the situation.

I looked to Laufey and tried to gauge if I was making any headway. He frowned, and the lines around his eyes looked like Loki's for a moment.

Laufey said, "I don't shoot at dames."

I relaxed a little. That was a mistake.

He grabbed me by the arm and shoved me. Pain wrenched through my arm. I almost fell to the ground but Loki caught me and pulled me away.

Thor and Laufey were almost touching with their guns in each other's faces. Laufey's crew all aimed their guns at Thor.

Clint called out, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. If anyone shoots Thor, this bullet goes right in Laufey's head."

I was relieved at his arrival, but wish he had gotten here sooner. Laufey's men turned their guns on Clint.

Laufey sneered. "You're too far away to get a clean shot."

Clint said, "I'm the greatest marksman in the world. Believe me, you pull that trigger, it'll be the last thing you ever do."

Laufey said, "Bullshit. Everyone knows Bullseye is the best marksman in the world."

Clint said, "Do you wanna stake your life on that?"

I felt my heart thump. The only movement was the fluttering of nearby crows.

Laufey said, "We've had enough excitement for the day. I'm putting my gun down and my boys will follow."

Everyone except Clint slowly lowered their weapons, including Thor.

Thor said, "Leave this place and my family alone."

Laufey said, "Not even your deal old mother too?"

A chorus of cruel laughter erupted from the Icelanders. Loki dug his nails into my shoulder. The men finally left.

Clint holstered his gun and joined us.

Thor said to Clint, "Thank you my good man. Whether you are truly the marksman you claim to be or exaggerating, you are brave and I owe you. And you, my good woman, though I hate to see ladies endanger themselves. And you my brother Loki for…standing by the side and doing absolutely nothing to come to my aid."

Loki said, "You wound me brother. This is Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff. They're private investigators whom I've hired to assist in solving father's death. I had the utmost confidence in their abilities and knew you were in no danger. The credit should go to me, for having the foresight to bring them with me today."

Clint and I exchanged a look with each other.

Thor put his arm around Clint and led him off. "Come, after the service I will introduce you to the rest of my friends and family."

Natasha said, "Well, it's good that they're hitting it off. Why does your brother talk like he's a character from a Shakespeare play?"

Loki said, "Oh well I was always the smart brother and Thor was the brawny athlete, so people assumed he was stupid. It got on his nerves so he started talking like Hamlet. He was the leader in his group of friends, so they started doing it too."

I asked "So, how come you talk so formally?"

"Oh, I studied in England. And I'm pretentious."

Loki rejoined his family and Clint and I sat in the back of the remaining mourners who hadn't been scattered off.

I asked Clint, "Thanks for the save, but what took you so long to reach us?"

"I was tracking things from a distance, but I saw we were being watched."

"So you were spied on while spying on other people. Who'd you see?"

"A man in black, maybe two. If I hadn't caught wind of that little shoot-out I could have tracked them, but saving you was a higher priority."

I said, "And saving Loki?"

"Aside from what he's paying us, I could care less about him. His brother is nice though. I wish he was the guy we were working for."

The Lutheran minister began his sermon. I discreetly looked around the nearby forest, wondering who the "spies" were.

**To be continued**

**Author's Note: Sorry if this chapter is a little short. Do people prefer shorter chapters updated more often or longer chapters updated slower?**


	4. Chapter 4

Avengers Noir Chapter 4

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Please read and review!

The Odinson family estate looked like a palace. I tried to imagine what it would be like growing up in such luxury. The luxury was muted by the sadness of the guests in the home.

Thor walked in with another blonde man. They looked so much alike I assumed he was a relative of the Odinsons, until he was introduced as Steve Rogers.

Rogers said to Loki, "I'm sorry for your loss. "

Loki gave him a terse thank you.

"If you don't mind, I need to take your official statement. Is there a place where I can speak with you in private?"

Loki said, "I mind. This is still the day of my father's funeral."

Rogers said, "If you don't want to talk to me today, you can come to the police station in person tomorrow."

Loki frowned and glanced quickly at me and then away.

"Very well then," Loki said. "But I'd like Ms. Romanoff present as a witness so there are no misunderstandings."

Rogers looked at me appraisingly. I kept my face neutral.

He said, "I'm not crazy about when personal investigators get in the way of police business."

I said, "I'm just an observer. Loki's request for a witness is reasonable."

Rogers agreed with obvious reluctance and Loki led us to another room. He locked the door behind us. I selected a chair between both men so I could see their faces.

There was a side table next to Rogers' seat covered in Odinson family pictures. They showed a progression as various family members grew from childhood to adulthood. Thor and Odin's blood connection was unmistakable. They looked like the same man with different hair and at different ages.

The photographs were the black and white that fades to a brownish sepia tint. Thor and Odin both looked golden. Compared to them, Loki's black hair and pale complexion contrasted so much he may as well have been a different race. I assumed he took after his mother as they both had the same high cheekbones.

Rogers took out a notepad and pen. I saw he had scribbled pictures in the margins of patriotic symbols and wholesome pin-up girls. They were actually quite good.

Rogers asked Loki, "How would you characterize your recent relationship with your father?"

Loki said, "It was fine. Perfectly fine."

His delivery was completely calm.

Rogers wrote in his notepad. "Perfect? No problems at all?"

"No more problems than any other fathers and sons have. If anything my father fought far more often with Thor. Have you interviewed Thor yet?"

"I'm interviewing all family members. Did your father have any significant conflict recently? Did he feel threatened by anyone?"

"There was the recent lawsuit between our company and Stark Industries. Over the patent for the new Tesseract Technology. Things were getting rather heated between my father and Tony Stark. And there's been bad blood between Laufey and my father for decades. Why just today Laufey and Thor publicly threatened to kill each other. Did Thor mention that to you?"

Rogers looked up from his note-taking. "I'm not interviewing Thor. I'm interviewing you."

Loki waved his hand dismissively. "Next question then."

Rogers frowned at him and curled his lip. He turned the page in his notepad.

"Where were you on the evening of September 12, 1949?"

"My wife Sigyn can testify I was home with my family."

"And how would you characterize your relationship with your wife?"

Loki scoffed. "Excuse me, but I don't see how that is relevant to my father's murder, nor is it your business."

Rogers was silent for a few moments, and then wrote on his pad. "I'm sorry, am I striking a nerve? I'll make a note you were uncooperative and refused to answer questions."

Loki looked steamed. "My marriage is wonderful. I've always provided for my family financially. Sigyn is an excellent wife. She's always been loyal, affectionate, obedient and guards my children from harm."

Rogers said, "It sounds like you're describing a Golden Retriever."

I burst out laughing. Both men turned to me. Loki had an angry "whose side are you on" look.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Just forget I'm here."

Rogers said, "Wouldn't it be fair to say that Sigyn would have a motive for lying to protect you?"

"You dare accuse my wife of lying? Maybe you shouldn't be on this case. The honorable thing to do would be for you to withdraw and have a less-biased man take over. I may have a talk with your superiors."

"How am I being biased and dishonorable?"

"I know you don't like me Rogers. You never have."

"You're right. I've never liked you. I think you're a spoiled brat who thinks he's better than everyone and hides behind his families' money and power. I think you're a draft dodger who sat out the War while honorable men like your brother had the courage to fight."

"I had medical reasons. I was exempted from fighting! I had…migraines."

"When the War first broke out I tried to enlist, but was rejected for being too weak. I spent the next few years getting into peak shape and taking experimental medications to cure any illnesses I had. And you shirked your responsibilities because you had headaches?"

Loki said, "You're my witness Natasha. This man is clearly biased against me."

Rogers said, "You think I can't do my job because of personal dislike? As a police detective I've lost count of how many cases I've had where every single suspect was a lowlife. I may not like you, but I hate men like Laufey and Tony Stark even more. I may not be perfect, but I do take my job seriously and want to see the right thing done. I want to see your father get the justice he deserves by finding his real killer. You can help or choose to be an obstructing pain."

Loki crossed his arms and pouted. He did look rather immature for a moment.

I decided this was a good time to get involved and said, "Maybe we can put aside our personal differences and work together. How about the police will share information with Clint and I, and vice-versa? Sharing intelligence is better than getting caught up in petty squabbles."

Rogers said, "That depends on what Loki is willing to do."

Loki said: "Fine. I won't file a complaint about you yet. Cooperation is better than being petulant. I loved my father more than anyone could understand and want to see his death avenged. Ask me the rest of your questions."

To be continued.

**Author's Note: I'm on vacation this week so I may be able to update more often.**


	5. Chapter 5

Avengers Noir Chapter 5

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Please read and review!

Lilies remind me of sugar and death. Their cloyingly sweet smell took me back to the scent of desserts, but I saw them the most during funerals and Easter, which was a celebration of resurrection after death.

The room the mourners congregated in was covered wall-to-wall with lilies, along with a few carnations and roses. I surveyed the rest of the memorial party, trying to find clues or connections. I noticed the men and women had separated themselves from each other. The male guests orbited around Thor, while the women and children orbited around Frigga.

Loki sat in a corner with a melancholy expression. I wondered if Steve Rogers' interrogation and dressing down of him had left him rattled.

I wanted to speak with Frigga, so I waited until she left the room carrying a pot of lilies. I followed her into a library. She placed the flowers on a table and started arranging them. I suspected she was trying to take a break from the crowd, so I tried to tread carefully.

I introduced myself and said, "I'm sorry for your loss. I was widowed a year and a half ago myself, I know what it feels like."

Without looking me she said, "Thank you" and returned to fussing with the flowers. Their sickeningly sweet odor tickled my nose.

I made polite small talk with her to try to warm her to me, and then asked, "Do you have any idea what your husband was doing on 17th Street on the evening of September 12th?"

The white lily petals stopped moving in her hands. She looked directly at my face for the first time. Her eyes looked like wet, blue steel and her face aged in front of me by 10 years.

Frigga said, "Excuse me, you're being very rude. This celebration is supposed to be for family and close friends only. Why are you here?"

I explained for what felt like the thousandth time in one day how Loki had hired me to investigate. Frigga's frown lines deepened as I spoke. She held her head in her hands the exact same way Loki did. I wondered if migraines ran in the family.

She said, "Loki hired a private investigator without consulting me first? I must have words with him. If I catch you disturbing any guests with your so-called investigation, I will ask you to leave."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you."

I quickly exited and returned to the party. I pulled Clint away from an overweight man named Volstagg and warned him what happened.

Clint said, "Well, she is a woman in grief. We can't blame her for getting angry. We'll have to follow up with potential witnesses and suspects later."

Frigga entered the room and said, "Loki, come see me please. I'd like a word with you. Now."

She flashed me a dirty look.

Loki walked towards her and Volstagg called out, "Getting a bit old to be a Momma's boy, aren't you Loki?"

Several men in the room laughed. Thor smacked Volstagg so loudly it sounded like indoor thunder. Volstagg looked sheepish.

The door closed behind Loki and his mother. I had a bad feeling in my stomach.

I whispered to Clint, "I think we're going to need to leave soon. His mother scares me more than Laufey's crowd."

A woman called out, "Fashionably late!"

Thor said to her, "Amora, you shouldn't be here."

Amora trailed forward through the room. She was a blonde with bedroom eyes, a pert nose, and Cupid 's bow Scarlett-rouged lips. She was beautiful in a trashy way. She wore a black dress with too much cleavage to be appropriate for a funeral. Her stockings were black with an emerald green serpentine pattern. The smells of smoke and Chanel no. 5 perfume drifted off of her.

She said, "I wouldn't miss this for the world. After all your family has meant to me through the years."

Various women whispered to each other and stared at her with disdain. Most of the men in the room stared at her with a different expression on their faces.

She held up a cigarette and asked, "Does anyone have a light?"

Five of the men including Clint stepped forward with lighters. She smiled at Clint, puckered her lips suggestively on the cigarette and leaned over to his flame. I wanted to smack him as loudly as Thor had smacked Volstagg.

Amora said, "Thank you. I don't think I've seen you before. And you…" she eyed Clint head to toe. "You, I would definitely remember."

Thor said, "This woman is trouble. You've made your appearance. Please leave."

Amora taunted, "Are you jealous of me finding another man Thor?"

Clint squinted and looked uneasy.

The door slammed open and Frigga said, "You are not welcome here, you harlot! Leave before I call the police."

Loki stood behind his mother with his hands on her shoulders.

Steve Rogers said, "I am the police."

Amora said, "I'm not doing anything illegal."

Loki said, "For these 5 minutes."

Amora said, "I have just as much a right to grieve for Odin as any of you, and more than most in this room."

Frigga said, "You've grieved, now leave. This memorial service is over, for everyone. Thank you for coming, but if everyone could please…just…leave."

Her voice cracked. Loki pulled her closer to him. Even though she was kicking me out, I felt a bit sad for her.

Amora sighed. "This family is no fun anymore."

She put her cigarette out on the floor and crushed it with her high heel. The guests gathered up their coats and belongings and filtered out the door. I joined the herd with Clint.

He said, "This is the first funeral I've been to where everyone was uninvited."

I said, "I think we were overdue to leave. Did you get everyone's name and address so we can interview them later?"

"Everyone major. Except Amora."

I remembered the tension between Amora and every surviving Odinson. "I think she's important."

Clint said, "I'll get her address."

He vanished into the crowd. I didn't like the idea of Clint being alone with her. He returned with a grin on his face and handed me a piece of paper.

I read it, "2600 North 18th Street. Wait a second, wasn't Odin's body found a block away on 17th Street?"

Clint and I exchanged a look.

To be continued.

Author's note: In keeping with the noir environment, Frigga isn't as sweet and good as her movie characterization.


	6. Chapter 6

Avengers Noir Chapter 6

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Please read and review!

I knocked on the door of Amora's third floor walk-up apartment. I'd convinced Clint to not come with me on the grounds that I would be more "immune to her charms." Loki asked both of us to be more discreet in our investigations to avoid upsetting his mother.

A bald man with a moustache answered the door. His scalp was decorated with two ink-black tattoos that looked like reverse horns. My face only reached his linebacker-wide shoulders as he stood a foot and a half taller than me. His burly physique clashed with his butler's uniform.

In a booming voice he asked, "What do you want?"

Amora called out, "Skurge darling, who is it?"

"Natasha Romanoff, with Hawkeye Investigations. I was hoping I could interview you."

Skurge frowned and growled at me. He sounded more animal than human.

Amora laced her arm around his thick bicep and purred, "It's alright baby. I adore being interviewed. Come in."

Amora was wearing a green silky nightgown, even though it was 2:00 in the afternoon. Her feet were bare and she padded softly through a thick shag carpet. A Chinchilla Persian cat rubbed its fluffy tail against me.

Her apartment was decorated in shades of green, cream, and black. The furniture looked expensive but comfortable, with overstuffed chaise lounges and velvet pillows. Silk drapes filtered direct sunlight out. Floor to ceiling mirrors made the room look bigger.

Everything looked feminine, with the exception of a weapons display cabinet. It was filled with various guns and swords, and its centerpiece was a giant axe. I didn't think Amora could even lift it. Skurge no doubt could.

Amora lay down on a lounge and lit up a cigarette. "Ask me anything. I'm an open book."

"How do you know the Odinson family?"

"I went to the St. Paul's Lutheran School with Loki and Thor. Thor and I courted for years."

I said carefully, "Thor didn't seem happy to see you."

She took a drag on her cigarette. "I suppose you could say he was the love of my life, but things didn't end well between us."

I heard a growl from Skurge in the corner. The cat jumped on her lap. She started running long red Dragon Lady fingernails through its fur.

I stayed silent to get her continue. "I thought Thor and I were going to be married. He went away to war, and I waited for him. I spurned all other suitors. When he returned, he had a new girlfriend. Some little nurse named Jane Foster he met overseas. I…didn't take the rejection well."

"There was a police report that you set fire to his car and Thor filed a temporary restraining order against you."

Amora must have scratched the cat too deeply because it hissed, nipped her, and ran away.

"What can I say?" Amora said, rubbing her nipped hand. "I'm passionate."

"Were you as passionate about Odin as you were about Thor?"

She stared at me and took another drag on her cigarette. "I didn't kill Odin. Do I look like I could hurt a fly?"

"I didn't ask you if you killed Odin. Do you have a guilty conscience about something?"

"Do you want me to say it out loud? Is that what you came here today for? Fine. I was having an affair with Odin. I got a phone call from him the night he was murdered that he was on his way over to see me, and he never came. I thought he was standing me up, but it turns out he was dead a block away from me. And I'm not supposed to get publicly upset about it because everyone hates 'The Other Woman.'"

"You couldn't get Thor, so you went after his father for revenge."

Amora said, "Don't judge me. Everyone is so quick to judge me and label me the town slut. No one really wants to hear my side of the story. In the beginning it was about revenge, but I did develop feelings for Odin. He was like an older, wiser version of Thor."

I bit my tongue from saying out loud that Odin wasn't wise enough to stay away from her.

I asked, "How many people knew about the relationship?"

"I don't know. Frigga found out and forbade him to see me. He cut things off for a few months, but I got him to come back to me. Maybe this is all my fault. Maybe one of his business rivals knew to follow him to me, and I did get him killed."

She started crying. Skurge brought her a box of tissues and a glass of water.

I said, "If he was killed by a rival, you can't blame yourself for this. Did he confide anything in you that could help narrow things down?"

"He hated Laufey."

"That's public knowledge."

"It isn't public knowledge why they hated each other. Laufey and Odin used to be friends. Until Laufey had an affair with Frigga. Frigga who's supposed to be the perfect domestic goddess wife."

"How long ago was this?"

"Ancient history. About thirty-three to thirty-four years ago."

I caught my breath. Loki was about that age. Could it be?

I said. "That's…interesting."

"Do you have any more questions?"

"On the night Odin was murdered, were you here the entire night?"

"Of course."

"Do you have any witnesses?"

"Skurge lives here. He was with me the entire time."

"So your only alibi is each other?"

Skurge growled again. The cat meowed and ran out of the room. I imagined him lifting the axe, or firing one of the pistols in the display case.

"Skurge is harmless. And so am I."

I didn't believe that, but thanked her for her hospitality. Skurge gave me a death glare and locked the door behind me.

I found a pay phone in a nearby alley and called Clint. I filled him in on the details.

Clint sighed on the other end of the line. "This is getting complicated. We have to be very careful how we tell Loki about this."

"I know. Maybe we should try to interview Laufey next."

Clint said, "I've been trying, but I can't get an interview, and he's always surrounded by his thugs. Besides, he has a rock-hard alibi of 40 witnesses attesting he was at a bar in Brooklyn the night of the murder."

"Everyone has an alibi," I said. "Has the coroner been interviewed?"

I heard Clint rustle some papers. "Let me see. We'd have to get the coroner report records from the police. I don't know how friendly Steve Rogers is to us yet."

"What if I went to the coroner directly? What's his name?"

Clint said, "Banner. Dr. Bruce Banner."

To be continued.


	7. Chapter 7

Avengers Noir Chapter 7

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Please read and review!

A greenish tint tainted everything about the coroner's office: the mint-colored tiles, the fluorescent lights, the scrubs on Dr. Bruce Banner. Banner's skin looked sallow-green. He took off green gloves covered in gore and shook my hand. I peered through his glasses and saw that even his eyes were brown with green flecks in them.

He quickly looked away. Lack of eye contact could mean anything from guilt to shyness.

Dr. Banner said, "I can't release any paperwork to you or let you make any copies, but I can show you the report."

He handed me a file and I read though the details. Everything was dry and technical, the violent end of a man's life reduced to terms like "piercing of cerebral cortex" and "cracked occipital condyle." Odin's body had been found lying face up in an alley.

The cause of death was a bullet shot through each eye. Odin had actually worn an eye patch on his right eye for decades, after an injury from his service in World War 1. I wondered if there was intentional symbolism in destroying his eyes.

I asked him, "How long have you been working as a coroner?"

"About 3 years."

"Have you ever seen anything like this?"

Banner took off his glasses and started cleaning the lenses. "You'd be surprised at what I've seen over time. I've recorded people blinded before, but I've never had a situation where someone shot an already blinded man in the eye, let alone both eyes."

I wanted him to look at me. It was easier to read people when they didn't hide their features.

I asked, "What do you think it means?"

He put his glasses back on, but still didn't look at me. "I don't give my opinion on motivations. I just report the facts on cause of death."

I sat down on the edge of his desk and crossed my legs. I knew just the barest top of my silk stocking was visible. I wasn't crazy about resorting to cheap tricks like flirtation, but I was trying to use what I had.

I twirled a lock of hair around my finger. "This is all off of the record. As a private investigator, I find trusting my instincts is the best thing to do. What do your instincts tell you about this case?"

He glanced at my thigh for a moment and then up at me. He sneered.

Through clenched teeth he said, "I think it's better for people not to give in to their emotional instincts. I'm a doctor and a scientist. Maybe you need to go now."

I pulled my skirt down. "Am I making you angry?"

He started laughing. "Lady, if you made me angry, believe me, you'd know it. I don't need to lose another job."

I sat down across from him. "Why would you be fired? I'm just trying to do my own job, too. A family lost a father. I'm only trying to find out why. Everything is off the record, I swear it."

Bruce locked his eyes onto mine. I tried to look sincere.

Bruce said, "I haven't seen this exact same cause of death before, but there is something familiar about it. Patient Number N-4912, or Odin as you know him, was shot with two precision strikes with .45 caliber bullets. One bullet alone would have killed him instantly. From the angles of the exit wounds, both shots hit him at the same time. If it's any consolation to the family, his death was instant and painless."

"How is this familiar to you?"

Bruce said, "About two years ago, I handled a case where three victims in the Irish Mafia were killed. They all died from two symmetrical bullets into their hearts. Two days later another Irishman was killed with two symmetrical bullets in his stomach. The murders were written off as unsolved gang warfare. Six months later one of the Chinese mafia was found dead with double gunshot wounds in his lungs. A week after that a low-level loan shark was found dead with two bullets to the base of his spine, and another two through his forehead."

"Did the police ever narrow down a suspect?"

"In a report I included my suspicions the kills were the mark of the same man. Rumors spread through the department of a mercenary or hit man for hire nicknamed Bullseye. I was warned by the top brass to back off on connecting the dots in writing or be forced into early retirement."

I remembered Laufey mentioning Bullseye as the world's greatest shot.

I asked, "I've heard about Bullseye from the criminal underground. Why were you threatened?"

"I think the powers that be around here were on the take from whoever hired Bullseye. And this job is my last chance. I used to be a University Doctor studying human biology, but I had a drinking problem. I get mean when I drink. Angry-mean. I put a guy through a wall in a bar and lost my license to practice medicine on the living. Working on the dead is my last hope."

Too often, people blamed alcohol for letting out the parts of their personalities that were inside of them all along. If he was angry when he drank, the rage was probably under the surface all along.

I tried to imagine Dr. Banner breaking a wall with a human being. His glasses and technical jargon made him appear a studious type of man, but under his scrubs his shoulders had a powerful build to them.

Banner grabbed a scalpel that glinted in the flickering light.

I said, "I won't let anyone trace the Bullseye connection back to you."

He held the scalpel up. "I would hope not for both of our sakes. Just get the son of a bitch that's doing this. I've got too many bodies coming in as it is."

"Thank you," I said. "How long ago did you stop drinking?"

He smiled at me. "Who says I stopped?"

I hurried out of the coroner's office as fast as I politely could.

Loki's house was a stately brownstone on the Upper East Side. It was four stories tall and covered in twisted ivy. Sigyn answered the door with her three children in tow.

I said, "Hello, I need to speak with Loki in person please."

Loki towered over her shoulder. "Alright then. Sigyn, set an extra place for Ms. Romanoff at the table for dinner."

His wife nodded and walked away. Her sons followed her immediately, but Hela stared at me. She didn't blink.

I whispered in Loki's ear. "I need to talk to you alone. Preferably in a room with alcohol."

A smile curled on his lips. "You want to share a drink with me?"

I said, "After I tell you what I need to tell you, I think you'll be the one needing a drink."

The smile on his face faded. He led me down to a library. I envied people wealthy enough to have their own libraries, although the more I learned about how disturbed Loki's family relations were, the less I envied him in particular.

As a private investigator I was used to giving people horrible news. Your wife or husband is cheating on you. Your daughter ran away from home because she's pregnant out of wedlock. In these instances the people who hired me were prepared for it. I didn't think when Loki hired me to find his father's killer he was prepared to discover Odin wasn't his biological parent, but his true father may be the man who was responsible for killing him.

Loki poured both of us a shot of vodka. We downed our drinks in tandem. I was dreading his reaction. Would he erupt in anger, blame me for being the bearer of bad news, possibly even fire me?

He asked, "What was so important that you needed to see me in person?"

I started simply and told him about the Bullseye killer theory, leaving Dr. Banner's name out of it.

"Interesting," he said. "A professional killer with double deadly aim. How dramatic. But is that really why you're here?"

"Would it be fair to say Thor was Odin's favorite, but you were Frigga's favored son?"

He frowned. "I never really thought about it in those terms. It's not prestigious for a man to be a 'Mama's Boy.'"

"So, if I told you Frigga wasn't perfect, you could handle it?"

He looked deep in thought, memory, or both.

Loki said, "I'd suspect you may be biased against my mother because she didn't approve of me hiring you. I would rather be my father's favorite."

"Why is that?"

"Because mothers don't have any real power."

"You mean, women don't have any real power."

"You have some power. In your beauty. It gives you power over men."

He stared intensely at me.

I said, "What if I told you another woman had that kind of power over your father? What if the reason Odin never favored you was because he suspected you weren't his child?"

I told Loki everything I had learned from Amora and braced for his reaction.

To Be Continued


	8. Chapter 8

Avengers Noir Chapter 8

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Please read and review!

Loki clenched his shot glass so tightly the veins in his right arm bulged. Under his pale skin his veins looked bluer than most people's. I thought of the blue-blooded aristocrat stereotype, except as Loki was finding out his blood wasn't so "blue" but tainted and adulterated, there was nothing regal about him.

Loki said, "Amora is lying."

I said, "I trust my instincts, and I don't believe she was."

"Instincts? You've met Amora once. I've known her for life. She's a bloody harlot. A crazy, manipulative witch. This is probably another one of her schemes to get to Thor. My mother is a saint. She's a domestic goddess who would never betray my father with scum like Laufey."

I figured he was in denial. "No one's parents are perfect. What would Amora gain by making up an affair with Odin? It wouldn't bring Thor closer to her."

Loki poured himself another vodka. "Amora was a bit of a parasite to my family for years. Her father used to be one of my father's Vice-Presidents, but he died in a car accident when Amora was twelve. My father set up a trust fund for her education that sent her to Vassar College."

"Amora graduated from Vassar?"

I wondered if Amora's father dying in her youth led her to be so flirtatious and attention-seeking from men. Both of my parents died when I was young, and it had left its mark on how I related to the rest of the world.

Loki shrugged. "I knew my mother hated her. I assumed it was because of all the melodrama she created with my brother. My father didn't approve of Thor and Amora marrying. He said there is the kind of woman that you marry, and the kind of woman that you don't, and Amora was definitely the latter. "

Every time Loki said "my father" his eyes dropped down, as if he knew it was a lie and was ashamed of it.

I said, "I think there would be a lot less cheating if men would let go of their 'good girls don't like sex' stereotypes and actually married women with higher sex drives. Maybe Odin didn't want Thor marrying Amora, so he could keep her for himself on the side."

Loki laughed and downed his shot. "That would certainly explain a lot. He didn't pay for her college education out of the goodness of his heart, but to butter her up to be his mistress. No one does anything without an ulterior motive."

"What would be your mother's motive for sleeping with Laufey?"

Loki held the empty shot glass to his head as if he was in pain. "Good Lord, most people don't want to imagine their mother having sex with their father, let alone with a monster like Laufey. It can't be true. It can't be."

He put his glass down and picked up a family picture. His lip quivered and his eyes watered.

I tried to be comforting. "Loki, whatever your mother or Odin did, it's not your fault. This doesn't reflect on you. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Nothing wrong, except be born a half-bastard. My very existence is created from adultery and betrayal and lies. It all makes sense now, why my father, why Odin favored Thor over me all of these years. He knew I wasn't really his. What's the saying: Mama's baby, Papa's maybe? And now I'm never going to be able to even talk to him about it."

"Are you going to talk to your mother?"

"When the time is right. Have you told anyone else about this?"

"Only Clint."

Loki sneered and knocked his glass to the ground. It shattered.

He seethed, "You told him before you told me. Something this intimate and life-changing for me."

"I tell him everything."

"Should you?"

I hesitated to respond. I wasn't by nature an open person. Personal information could be twisted around too easily, but I did trust Clint with my life.

I said, "I trust him completely. Everyone needs a confidant"

"Trust? I can't even trust what my bloody parents tell me. Some people say money makes the world go round. Others say love. I say it's lies. Lies like family and honor and loyalty. At least I understand now why I've been treated as an outsider for so long. Why I've felt so alone in the world."

The despair in his voice broke my heart. I was afraid he was cracking. I covered his hand with mine.

I said, "Everything I've discovered is confidential. But if you want to end my involvement in solving Odin's murder since you know he's not your real father, I'll understand."

He squeezed my hand. "No. I want to solve it more than ever now, especially if Laufey is the culprit. It would be a delicious irony if I came out ahead of Thor, his real son on solving the final challenge of his life. Besides, I like having you around too much for you to walk away from me now."

His grip on me grew tighter and he pulled me closer. He was giving me the look, that look that men give when they're about to kiss you. I would be lying to say that it didn't feel tempting. He closed his eyes, those beautiful blue-green eyes of his, and leaned forward to press his lips to mine.

I stood up and turned away from him. I turned away to hide whatever expression on my face would give away my feelings.

"No," I said. "You're a married man."

"Being married didn't stop either one of my parents."

"And look at the damage that caused."

"Like my birth?"

"I didn't mean it like that. Look, you're drunk, and you just learned earth-shattering news. You're vulnerable, and I'm not going to take advantage of that."

He laughed. "You take advantage of me? Highly unlikely. I've wanted you since the day we met."

He slid up behind me and brushed my hair to the side. He kissed the back of my neck. I was afraid to look at him, afraid if I did I'd kiss him back.

I pulled away and said, "This is wrong."

"Look at me Natasha."

I kept my face neutral and met his eyes.

"If I wasn't married, would you want this? Don't lie to me, I've been lied to enough already."

"If you weren't married, then yes. But there are moral lines I won't cross."

"This moral code of yours, does it make you happy? Does it set you apart from the adulterers and murderers you hunt? Or does it just keep you alone? I sense that you're just as alone as I am."

"It works for me. If you want me to continue working for you, you'll respect that. I'll give you a pass on your behavior tonight because of the circumstances, but please don't put me in this position again."

Loki looked down at the ground for a few moments. "Agreed. But don't tell Clint about this. It will be our little secret."

"Our dirty little secret."

To be continued.


	9. Chapter 9

Avengers Noir Chapter 9

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Please read and review!

Clint asked me, "Tash, are you OK?"

He hardly ever called me "Tash" anymore. It was a nickname he gave me when we were still lovers, and it brought back memories. It made me realize that no matter how much I wanted to be independent, I missed being in a relationship.

"I'm fine, just a little tired," I lied.

I didn't like lying to Clint. I wasn't fine. I'd sat through the most uncomfortable dinner in history trying to keep a straight face in front of Loki's wife, with his creepy daughter Hela staring at me and Loki trying to hide how drunk he was.

Clint looked at me skeptically. "Are you too tired to hunt with me for the Bullseye Killer?"

"Do you have a lead?"

"I've been talking to my best informants. Our best shot, no pun, intended, is 'The Bar With No Name.' The most ruthless guns for hire hang out there."

I frowned. "Is it safe?"

"If you're a bullet. We should both only go in armed. On second thought, maybe my backup shouldn't be a lady."

I didn't want to be dismissed so easily. "Who are you going to call instead of me, Steve Rogers? The police would get eaten alive in a place like this, not that he'd join us at this point. At least if you bring a woman, people will underestimate me."

Clint considered. "True. But let's not get separated."

"I'll change into something more appropriate."

I kept a stash of disguises for undercover P.I. work in the office. What would help me blend in at a place like the "No Name?"

I looked in a mirror at my current clothes. I was wearing a prim, professional knee length shirtdress with shoulder pads and a full skirt. I looked like the kind of girl you marry.

I went through my disguises and settled on the hooker get up: Too short skirt, too tight top, too much cleavage. I now looked like the kind of girl you don't marry.

Was it really so simple, with no options in between but good wife or trampy mistress? Sometimes the happy housewife from a rich family cheats on her husband, and the blonde bombshell is smart enough to go to Vassar. And where would someone like me fit in: principled enough to not steal another woman's man, but not being immune to the pleasures of skin against skin?

My new outfit showed so much skin I could barely hide a pistol in my garter belt. A switchblade took up less space. I added crimson red lipstick and a black wig.

I returned to the front of office and Clint eyed me. "Nice."

"Nice isn't the look I was going for."

"Naughty then. I hope I don't have to shoot anyone off of you."

"Thanks. Where is this place?"

"Hell's Kitchen."

"How appropriate. Let's go."

Clint drove us to a ramshackle building near the docks of the Hudson River. There was no sign on the door. Clint knocked and a peephole opened.

A gruff voice asked, "What's the password?"

Clint looked at me with worry in his eyes. He pointed his gun through the peephole and said, "The password is let me in or I'll blow your f&*^$#g head off."

The bouncer opened the door to us and waved us in. He locked the door behind us. I didn't like the sound of the lock. I didn't like the look of the place.

Smoke clouded the room, broken only by the harsh glare of fluorescent lights. There were no windows, not even dirty ones. Reddish-brown marks covered the floor. I suspected they were dried blood.

A jukebox played Frank Sinatra. Two pool tables were occupied with the sounds of billiards clanking against each other. I listened to chatter in 5 different languages.

The walls were decorated with pictures of men arrested for being part of the Irish Mob, beer advertisements, and a well-worn dart board. The dart board had multiple holes near its center.

There were a few women dressed as scantily as I was. I saw two of them give me threatening glances.

Most of the men looked like thugs. Their body types ranged from lean and mean to tall mountains of muscle.

Clint leaned in closer to me.

"What's your plan?" I whispered.

"Draw him out through ego."

Clint jumped on top of the bar. He said, "OK everyone, listen up. My name is Clint Barton, and I'm the greatest shot in the universe."

Snickers of derision erupted in the room.

Clint continued, "I'm willing to buy everyone in this room, and I do mean everyone, a drink if I can't hit the bull's-eye on that dartboard twice."

I knew Clint had a history as a circus performer, and his flamboyance was coming out. I wasn't sure if this was the right place for that. He leapt off of the bar and strutted to the dartboard, pulling out various darts.

He held up one of the darts and waved it around, aimed, and hit the bull's-eye. I watched the reactions in the crowd. It was mostly amusement or boredom.

Two nearby men looked hostile. One was a burly man with a scorpion tattoo on one arm and a black snake dripping venom on the other. His companion was a wiry-looking guy with a Yankees baseball cap covering most of his forehead. They whispered to each other.

Clint held up a second dart and aimed. The man with the scorpion tattoo stuck his foot out. I warned Clint, "look out," but Clint tripped.

Someone yelled at the man who tripped him, "Gargan, you moron!"

Gargan said, "What?! I wanted the free drink."

Clint steadied himself, aimed again and threw the dart. It split through his previous dart dead center. A few people clapped, but not many.

Clint boasted, "Greatest marksman in the world!"

A knife whistled past us and split both previous darts in two.

Clint said, "That could've killed me."

The guy in the baseball cap stepped forward, "Lucky for you I never miss. Gargan, clear the board. I'll go one better and hit the bull's-eye three more times. Let's see who the real greatest marksman is."

I noticed a fair number of the patrons, no matter how intimidating they seemed, scattered away from the man in the cap.

Gargan pulled out the knife and what was left of the torn darts. Clint's new competitor aimed and fired off three darts in rapid succession. All hit the center.

The whole room clapped except me. They didn't necessarily look happy at his win. I suspected he was feared, but not liked by the other patrons.

"Nice job," Clint said. "I guess I sort of owe you a drink, just not the rest of the bar."

Gargan said, "Don't I get a drink, too? I helped."

Clint said, "Sure, let's all get a booth."

We settled in to a corner. The booth was padded in cheap vinyl with holes. Clint brought us a few pitchers of beer.

Gargan sat next to me, blocking my exit. He licked his lips and leered at me. I regretted dressing like a lady of the night.

Gargan put his arm around my back and said, "You look good enough to eat. How much do you charge?"

Clint barked, "She's not like that."

I pushed his arm off. "I'm not for sale."

Gargan sneered.

His "friend" said, "Behave yourself. For now."

Clint said, "Yeah, be nice Mr. Gargan, and… what is your name? I never got it."

The man in the cap said, "Lester."

I asked, "Is that the only name you go by?"

He smiled at me. It wasn't a nice smile at all. One of his teeth was missing, making him look damaged.

Lester pulled the baseball hat off of his head. He was bald, but his forehead was covered in a hideous circular scar.

"People also call me Bullseye. But I think you already knew that."

To be continued.

Author's Note: there will be more Loki and Natasha in upcoming chapters.


	10. Chapter 10

Avengers Noir Chapter 10

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Please read and review!

I remembered Clint saying we were being watched at Odin's funeral by two men in black. What if it was Bullseye and Gargan, and they already knew our identities?

Clint asked, "What makes you think we know who you are?"

Bullseye put his hands behind his head and leaned back. It was a move that should have made him look less threatening, but I was reminded of a predator backing in on itself before it attacked its prey.

He said, "You come into my territory bragging about being the best shot ever when anyone who matters knows that's me. It looks like a play to get my attention. You've got it. Now don't try to bulls#$t me again. What the f #k do you want?"

Clint and I exchanged a look. I tried the wary but direct approach and said, "We just want to ask you some questions."

Bullseye asked too loudly, "Are you cops?"

A few patrons turned and gave us looks that could kill. Bullseye grinned.

Clint said, "No, I'm just a private eye."

Gargan broke out in laughter. The seat I was forced to share with him shook from it.

He said, "I used to be a private eye."

I asked, 'What happened?"

Gargan said, "Let's just say I found a career that pays a lot better."

Clint said, "Like murder for hire."

Gargan's body tensed. I noticed his arms had needle tracks on them. They could be from anything from opium to steroids. For all of his imposing mass, he looked to Bullseye for how to respond.

Bullseye took his hands from behind his head and leaned forward. "Are you wearing a wire?"

Clint said, "No."

Bullseye beckoned with his hand. "Show me."

Clint looked nervous, which was a rare occurrence for him. I wondered if he actually was wearing a wire and didn't tell me. If that was true, we were both doomed.

Bullseye's delivery was oddly flat. "Show me if you don't wanna face the mob here, or worse, me."

Clint said, "Well if you're dying to see me take my shirt off so badly…"

Gargan slammed his fist on the table, rattling the beers, "Do it, now!"

Clint unbuttoned his shirt. The skin on his torso was 5 shades lighter than his face and arms. He wasn't wearing a wire, but he had a strap over his chest filled with trick arrowheads.

Bullseye raised his eyebrow. "Interesting. What the hell are those?"

"I make my own weapon modifications."

Bullseye shrugged. "Anything can be a weapon, if I throw it hard enough. Button up."

I wondered why he didn't confiscate Clint's arsenal. Maybe he didn't consider him to be a threat.

Gargan said, "Now it's her turn."

I vowed to myself never dress up as a prostitute ever again.

Clint exclaimed, "What!?"

This was the last place on Earth I wanted to strip in, and these were the worst men possible to be pressured to do it in front of. I was feeling genuinely scared, in a way I hadn't been when I stepped in front of Laufey's guns at the funeral.

I asked, "Does it look like I could fit a wire under this shirt? You've already proved you're the top dog here. There's no need to ask me to do this. And it's a hell of a lot worse to ask a lady than a man to go shirtless in a place like this."

Bullseye said, "I don't see any 'ladies' in front of me, and a wire can fit almost anywhere on the human body. Or in it."

I didn't want to know how he knew the latter. I said. "We're not working for the cops. Neither one of us is wearing a wire. It would be entrapment if we lied about either of those. I swear to God."

Gargan said, "There ain't no God around here."

Bullseye gulped down his beer and poured himself another. "You have a point. What do you wanna know?"

I looked to Clint to start our questions.

Clint asked, "Did you see Odin Odinson on the evening of September 12th?"

Bullseye chuckled. "Yeah, you could say I saw him."

I asked, "Did you kill him?"

He grinned, showing the black gap in his teeth. "Maybe."

I asked, "Either you did or you didn't. If you didn't, then someone else is a better shot than you and we're wasting our time here."

I stood up to leave, but Bullseye signaled to Gargan, who grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back down. Clint shot him a glare.

Bullseye stood up and leaned into my space, "Officially, I didn't do it. Unofficially, off the record, no one is better than me. I did it. I finished the almighty Odin, god of the financial world."

I asked, "Why?"

"Why? It's my job. It's what I do."

Clint asked, "Who paid you?"

Bullseye sat back in his seat and crossed his arms in front of his chest. It was body language for, "I'm not giving out anything."

"I'm not gonna say. If word gets out I ratted on my employer, I'll never get work in this town again. And believe me, I love my job."

He spoke about murder for hire as if he was discussing a love of teaching.

I asked, "Is it someone you worked for before?"

Bullseye said, "Your questions are over. Thanks for the drinks and don't let me see you here again. And if I get word that you're asking around about who hired me, I might just have to do my job for free."

Clint and I left and went back to the car.

Clint said, "I didn't like those guys. And I don't like putting you in danger like that."

"I'll just dress like a nun next time and we'll avoid walking into hostile territory."

Clint stared out of the window and then at me. "What if there is no next time? I'm having doubts about this case."

"Doubts? We had a murder confession. Granted Bullseye threatened to kill us and getting him to go on record is another story, but we're doing really well."

"I don't know if Loki is worth dying for."

I thought about everything. Clint had no idea about my growing emotional involvement with Loki. I wondered if he knew, if his protectiveness of me would make him want to drop the case even more.

"I thought you liked excitement." I said. "We'll both be more careful and ask for more money."

"There's a difference between excitement and being humiliated and put in jeopardy. You ask Loki. You spend more time with him than I do."

I tried to keep the guilt off of my face.

To be continued.


	11. Chapter 11

Avengers Noir Chapter 11

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Please read and review. It's very motivating.

I dialed Loki's number and waited for him to pick up. Sigyn answered.

She said, "It's rather late for you to be calling."

I checked my watch. It was 10:30 PM on a weeknight. I wondered if she suspected anything. Plenty of wives were wiser than their husbands gave them credit for. I tried to remind myself I had done nothing to feel guilty about, and in my most even tone asked to speak to her husband.

It felt like an eternity before Loki picked up. I summarized what happened, as well as putting in a request for more money.

Loki sighed on his end of the phone. "More money could be a problem after tomorrow."

I trailed my finger through the phone cord to channel my apprehensiveness. "Why?"

"The reading of the will is tomorrow. It's to take place at the Law Offices of Kirby & Simonson. Depending on Odin's whims, I might be cut off financially."

I'd been so concerned with the growing danger in the case, I hadn't thought of the possibility of the money running out.

I asked, "Do you really think your father would be that cold?"

Loki let out a laugh that contained no humor. "He's not my real father. Why would he continue to pay for someone else's bastard?"

"Well, you won't know until the reading tomorrow. Do you want me to come?"

"Are you trying to get a last-minute paid assignment in? It wouldn't hurt if you came. But come incognito, so as not to upset my mother."

"You haven't told her you know the truth yet, have you?"

"In good time."

The next day, I looked through my disguises. After last night, my first instinct was to dress in something conservative and not attention-seeking. I picked a black suit, and a hat with netting to conceal my face.

I looked through my wigs and selected a brown one. For shoes, I picked a pair I could run in.

Clint dropped me off at the law offices. A caravan of expensive cars was parked by the curb. Thor's car was a big, white Cadillac. It had a vanity license plate reading: "THOR ONE." Loki's car was a black sedan with a license place reading: "LOKI TWO."

I walked into the law office and sat in a corner where I could observe people. The chairs were arranged in a circle. Thor rested next to Frigga in a chair that looked too small for him. Loki sat with Sigyn and their children. I noticed Sigyn sat with her leg crossed towards Loki, but he sat with his leg crossed away from her.

A red-headed woman politely but firmly pushed through the crowd. "Excuse me, pardon me, excuse me."

The woman handed an envelope to the attorney, Mr. Simonson.

"I'm sorry to interrupt. I'm Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's assistant."

Simonson said, "We're about to start the reading of a will. Couldn't this wait?"

Pepper said, "This pertains to the will. It's a legal notice that whoever inherits Odin Odinson's company is still going to be a defendant in our lawsuit against you over the Tesseract Technology."

Simonson opened it and frowned.

Pepper said, "Consider yourselves legally served."

Thor boomed, "Is Tony Stark such a coward he cannot show his face to my family?"

Pepper said. "Tony…Mr. Stark is the bravest man I know, and he's intelligent enough to know when to delegate unpleasant tasks."

I wondered from the tone in her voice if she was secretly in love with her boss.

Thor stood up and loomed over her. "Be thankful you are a woman, for if you were a man I would smite you where you stand for this intrusion."

Loki rose next to her and said, "That's probably the reason he sent a woman. Clever, really. Will you be staying long to spy on us for him, Ms. Potts? Pepper is such an interesting name."

Pepper looked uncomfortable, and I couldn't blame her.

She said, "No. I have another appointment I needed to get to five minutes ago."

Loki said, "Too bad. I just love redheads."

I stared at him sharply through the netting on my hat.

Pepper left in a hurry. In her place Amora and Skurge entered. She wore a forest green

Frigga said, "You are not welcome here."

Amora held up an envelope, with her jewel-covered middle finger extended. "This time I am. I was invited."

Frigga curled her lip. Knowing what I now knew, I viewed her resentment of Amora differently.

Mr. Simonson said, "If everyone will please take their seats, I will read the last will and testament of Odin."

Amora sauntered over with Skurge in tow like a bull being led on a leash and took the seat next to mine. She introduced herself to me.

I didn't want to give my cover away, so I faked a Swedish accent when I said hello.

Amora asked, "Have we met before? Because you seem awfully familiar."

My scalp itched under the wig. My disguises were better for going incognito at a distance. Fooling people who I had already interacted with was tougher.

"Oh…no. I'm Helga Noringjoborg."

"Really. Are you a relative?"

"I'm from Frigga's side of the family."

Amora frowned. "With all due respect, I have both sides of Thor's family tree memorized, and I don't recall ever hearing of you."

"I'm a third cousin twice removed."

She smiled slyly. "Really? I know who you really are."

My scalp was itching like crazy. I did not want to be discovered or cause a scene on what could be my last day on the case.

Simonson began reading, "I Odin, being of sound mind and body hereby declare this to be my last will and testament."

Amora leaned to my ear and whispered, "You're a mistress of Odin's."

I debated if I was better off playing along with her accusation.

I whispered back, "It takes one to know one."

Amora laughed. A few people in the group stared at us.

She said, "True. There's no point in fighting over a dead man. The only thing that matters is how much money he leaves us. I just want to see the look on Frigga's face when they call my name."

Simonson continued reading, "To my beloved and faithful wife Frigga, I leave an estate in her name to pay her the sum of $9,000 a year until the end of her days."

When he said "beloved and faithful" Amora snickered and Loki looked as if he was struggling to keep a straight face. Frigga half-smiled.

Simonson said, "To Amora, in gratitude for her father's service to me, a lump sum of $50,000. May it serve as a dowry for any future husband she may take."

Amora grinned smugly. Frigga gave her a death-glare. Odin's excuse of giving her money for her father and as a potential "dowry" was a clever way of not making his actions scream like a payoff to a mistress.

Simonson said, "As for the control of my company, I declare…"

Thor and Loki leaned forward in their seats.

Simonson said, "My eldest son Thor will be President and my heir."

Thor raised his fist in triumph. People patted him on the back, oblivious to the expression of despair on Loki's face.

Simonson continued, "Should Thor become incapacitated, the company's control will revert to Loki. Loki shall have a place as Senior Vice-President and shall serve at the discretion of Thor. Should Thor die with no legitimate heirs, the company will revert to Loki's sons."

Loki looked thoughtful. He clasped his hands together.

Simonson finished, "This concludes my last will and testament."

The crowd started standing up and gathering around. Most people gravitated to Thor, offering more congratulations.

Amora said, "Oh Thor darling, with the legitimate heir issue, isn't it time you took a wife?"

Loki and his family were pushed to the edges.

Loki told Sigyn, "Please take the children and start the car up."

She nodded and led them out the door. Loki gestured for me to meet him outside the room.

I met him in an empty office and lifted my veil up.

I said, "Look on the bright side. You still have a job."

"Please. The title of Executive Vice-President isn't worth the paper it's printed on. And to serve at my brother's discretion means he could fire me if he was simply in the mood to. I suspect Odin wanted to keep using my brains and business acumen to run his company, while giving the official glory to his real son."

"By your brother being incapacitated, does that mean if he gets drunk on a Friday night, you get to temporarily take over?"

He laughed. "I should be running the company five nights a week then. I suppose this isn't so bad. I don't have to respond to Tony Stark's bloody lawsuit."

I was glad he seemed to be cheering up a little.

I said, "Pepper Potts serving Stark's lawsuit seemed awfully well-timed. The reading of the will wasn't publicly advertised."

He frowned. "You're right. Any other observations?"

I thought back. "Amora knew Odin was going to leave her a fair amount of money. That would give her motive. Maybe she hired Bullseye?"

"Possibly."

The building shook and I heard a loud explosion. We both ran to a window at the end of the hall. I felt heat and saw a blaze of fire from the cars below.

Someone screamed, "Thor's and Loki's cars exploded!"

To be continued

Author's note: $9,000 may not sound like much, but the average salary in 1949 was only $3,600.


	12. Chapter 12

Avengers Noir Chapter 12

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence, death, and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Thank you for reading and reviewing. It's very motivating.

Hospital waiting rooms rarely ever led to good news. Aside from the birth of a child, people never spent the night in an emergency waiting room for a positive reason. And nothing could be more agonizing than waiting to hear the confirmation of a child's life or death.

Loki's blue-green eyes were rimmed with red. He slumped over in his seat, as if all of his previous confidence had leaked out with his tears.

Thor sat with his arm over his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

Thor said, "It will be alright brother. This is the finest hospital in the city. Jane Foster works here as a nurse. She can pull strings to get the best care possible."

Loki turned away from him. I'd gotten the sense that Loki disliked Thor, but Thor loved him the same as any normal brother would. I was an only child, but sometimes daydreamed about what it would have been like to come from a larger family and count on their support. But the downside of having the support of family was dealing with its potential loss.

I wanted to comfort Loki, but held back. Instead I brought him a glass of water from the water cooler. Thor looked at me questioningly. I had taken my disguise off as Frigga had fainted and gone to her home, but I wasn't 100% sure how to act in front of the rest of his family.

I tried to say something encouraging. "The fact that we're still waiting is a good sign."

Thor said. "I hate waiting. I'd rather take action. I'd rather hit something."

A nurse with the name tag "Jane Foster" walked in the room. Thor rushed to her. Loki stood up, fear in his eyes.

Jane's eyes were brown and huge. Her expression was one of pure dread.

She said "I have good news for you. Your daughter Hela has been stabilized. She has third degree burns on the left side of her body, but she's alive."

"Thank you," Loki choked out. "And what of Sigyn and Vali and Narvi?"

Jane swallowed. She glanced to Thor, who looked grief-stricken.

She said, 'I'm so sorry, but they didn't make it."

Loki let out a guttural scream and collapsed into a chair. "Am I forsaken? Am I cursed? Am I a bad man for all of this to happen to me? Why is this happening to me?"

Thor punched a wall and shouted. "This was Laufey's doing! He attacks my entire family, even women and children."

Thor pulled his hand back and winced. His knuckles were covered in blood.

Jane said, "I'll get you antiseptic and a bandage. There's no need for self-injury."

Jane left. She seemed almost too intelligent to be a love interest of Thor's, but maybe Thor was more intelligent than Loki in his envy gave him credit for.

I watched both Odinson brothers. They were both coiled springs of rage. Thor paced, holding his injured hand aloft. Loki stared into the distance with a furrowed brow and a curled lip.

He seemed genuinely upset at Sigyn's death. I looked back and realized I had started to resent her, but in no way did I wish for her or her sons to die. I didn't want anyone to die like this. Well, maybe Bullseye and Gargan.

Captain Steve Rogers walked in. He took his hat off and held it in both hands.

Rogers said, "I'm sorry for your losses. No man should have to deal with the death of his father, wife and children over so short a period of time."

Loki looked at him and sneered. "You're sorry? Really? You're bloody sorry. If you were doing your bloody job this wouldn't have happened. Why isn't Laufey in prison yet?!"

Thor said, "Forgive my brother's outburst. Funny, he usually says that about me. But he is understandably upset, and so am I. Why is my family dying while Laufey roams the streets?"

Rogers said, "He's being questioned, but as of now we don't have anything to connect him with today's explosion. We don't have enough information."

Loki said, "What information do you have? The police are useless."

Steve winced. "What we know so far is this. We found traces of a bomb with a timer among what was left of Thor's car. The bomb exploded right at the moment that Sigyn was driving Loki's car next to it."

Loki frowned. He put his fingers to his temples and rubbed them. "So, they weren't even aiming for me, they were aiming for Thor. Whoever did this, and don't bloody tell me it wasn't Laufey, was aiming for Thor, and out of sheer, dumb luck, my family gets caught in the crossfire."

Loki faced Thor. "This is all your fault then. Everything is your fault. Everything is always your fault. You had to bloody threaten Laufey in public, and I'm the one drowning in your mess."

Thor said, "I understand your anger brother, I…"

Loki punched him across his jaw. Thor looked shocked. Loki tried to punch him again, but Thor caught his fist.

Thor said, "I don't want to fight you."

Loki dug his fingernails into the already bleeding skin on Thor's knuckles. He smiled as he did it.

Thor said, "But fight you, I will."

Thor head-butted him, sending him flying back across the room. Loki jumped back on his feet and came towards Thor with his fists aloft.

Rogers said, "Stop this. Both of you."

I interjected, "You're both being childish. Direct your anger elsewhere."

Loki moved as if he was about to punch Thor, but when Thor moved to block him he kneed Thor to the groin. Thor clocked Loki with an upper-cut.

Thor said, "It is our family business. Stay out of it."

Steve said, "Stop fighting or I'll arrest you both for disturbing the peace."

Thor said "No you won't. You would never arrest me. I know you too well."

Thor took another swing at Loki, but he ducked out of his way and tackled him. They fell onto the floor pummeling each other.

I ran to the water cooler, twisted it open, and poured the water on both of them. They froze and looked up at me.

Steve said, "I was going to think of that next. Are you two done now?"

Loki and Thor glared at each other.

Thor said, "He started it."

Loki said, "You go through life solving problems with your fists, but heaven forbid I do the same."

Rogers held his hand out to Thor and helped him up.

I threw a towel over Loki's shoulders and whispered, "You're brothers. You aren't enemies. Aim your anger at the right target. You should apologize to him."

Loki whispered, "Why should I? It's his fault my wife and sons are dead."

"Because he can fire you, remember? And we don't know for sure it was Laufey."

I noticed Rogers staring at me with suspicion.

Loki stiffened and adopted a contrite expression. "I apologize for my behavior. I must have gone mad with grief. It won't happen again. I promise."

Thor said, "I understand, and see myself in you. I cannot blame you for sharing our fiery family nature."

Rogers said, "Don't make a promise you can't keep. May I have a word with you alone, Ms. Romanoff?"

I nodded. Loki looked alarmed.

Rogers led me to a spare room. He took out his pad and pen. I sat on the edge of an examination table, realizing it was one of those gynecology tables with metal stirrups.

He asked, "What were you doing today at the reading of the will?"

"I was working."

"Working. I heard you came in disguise. Why is that?"

"Loki's mother didn't approve of him hiring a private detective."

"Interesting. And where were you at 11:15 AM, during the moment of the explosion?"

I tensed, digging my fingers into the table. I couldn't lie to a police officer.

"I was in an office."

"Did you have any witnesses?"

"I was with Loki. We were discussing the case."

I realized I'd answered a question that hadn't been asked, which was dangerous to do in an interrogation.

"So you were alone with him?"

"Yes."

"At the exact moment that his wife and children were being murdered."

I said nothing. Steve's pencil scratched on his paper. I gripped the stirrups.

Steve said slowly, "It's funny. Loki gave a statement earlier that he was in the men's room at the time of the explosion. Why would he say that?"

"I can't speak for Loki, I can only speak for me."

"Maybe the two of you need to get your stories straight."

"I'm telling the truth."

"What exactly is the nature of your relationship with Loki?"

I was getting déjà vu.

I stated coolly, "He's my boss."

"Have you ever…are you…have you ever had carnal relations with him?"

He seemed obviously uncomfortable asking the question.

"No, as God is my witness I haven't. We haven't even kissed. Should I lie back in the stirrups and you can invade my personal space some more?"

Steve turned red. "I'm sorry. These are questions I have to ask. A terrible tragedy happened today, and I need the truth about everything or I can't do my job."

I thought about the Bullseye angle, versus today's attack.

I said, "You're investigating this as if Odin's murder and today's explosion were committed by the same person. What if they weren't?"

Steve cocked his head. "What Intel do you have?"

"You sound more like a soldier than a police officer. If I give you what I have, I'd like more police cooperation, instead of my employer and I being treated like suspects."

"I'll always be a soldier, and the scene today looked like a war. What do you know?"

I leaned forward. "What do you know about Bullseye?"

**To be continued**

**Author's Note: I planned on killing off Sigyn and Loki's sons from the beginning as a "necessary evil". I'm not crazy about killing off children, so it happened "off camera." In Norse mythology, Vali and Narvi were murdered to punish Loki. **


	13. Chapter 13

Avengers Noir Chapter 13

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence, death, and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Please read and review. It's very motivating. Happy New Year's!

Captain Steve Rogers looked thoughtful as I told him most of what I knew. I left out Loki's true parentage and didn't say Doctor Banner was my source.

Steve said, "Bullseye actively threatened your life if you continued to look into this case, and yet you kept working on it. Why?"

"It's my job. The police aren't the only people who want to find the truth. And I…care about Loki. He's been going through so much lately."

I felt Steve's bright blue eyes bear into me when I said "care." It could be such a loaded word. It could lead to love.

Steve said, "I'll give you credit, you and Barton have gotten farther than I have. It sounds like your only weakness is getting through to Laufey."

"You said he's being questioned."

"Always with a lawyer or his goons present."

"What if you and I went in together and tracked him down off guard? With Clint involved, we'd have numbers on our side."

"Men like Laufey are never alone. Icelander organized crime is very tight knit."

"If we pooled resources like I suggested earlier, we could try."

Steve looked thoughtful. "It wouldn't hurt. I haven't been getting much cooperation inside of my own department. And I want to question Tony Stark. He knew the moment of the will being read, his company makes explosive devices, and he could afford to hire a professional killer."

I agreed and radioed Clint. He promised to track down Laufey.

I returned to the waiting room. Thor had left and Loki was staring into space. His expression was odd, as if he was lost in thought but blank.

I told him what I was doing while Steve watched us. Loki's eyes darted between my face and Steve's.

Loki said, "I'll stay here, in case Hela wakes up. Do fill me in later tonight."

He squeezed my arm gently before I departed, brushing his fingertips against my skin.

Steve drove us to Tony Stark's ostentatious office building. It was the second tallest building in New York. From what I'd heard about Stark's ego, I was surprised it wasn't the tallest.

Steve flashed his badge to security and was able to get us escorted straight up to Stark's penthouse office. Working with a police detective had its advantages. I was starting to like Steve.

Pepper Potts looked up warily at us when we entered the antechamber. I searched her face for guilt. She probably didn't recognize me.

Pepper buzzed the office, "Tony, the police are here to see you."

I said, "I'm not police, but we'd like to interview you as well, Miss Potts. You did leave a crime scene earlier today."

Pepper looked stunned.

Tony Stark opened his office door. He was tall, with dark hair and an impeccably groomed moustache and goatee. He was handsome and carried himself as if everyone knew it.

Stark said, "OK, you've got five minutes."

Steve said, "I'm sorry if you have another appointment coming up, but this is police business and has to take precedence."

Stark said, "I don't have another appointment, I just know I'll get bored in five minutes."

Steve gave me a "Did he just say what I think he said" look.

Stark gestured for us to enter his office. It was decorated in shades of shiny gold and crimson red, with his name emblazoned on everything. The room was decorated with mirrors and pictures of inventions. The only photograph of a human being was one of himself at age 12 or 13 with his world famous father.

Stark asked, "Do you want anything to drink?"

I noted he smelled like alcohol. Not a fresh beer or wine, but morning after old alcohol, the kind that sweats through a person's hangover. Could he be drinking to fight a guilty conscience?

Steve said, "I never drink on the job."

Stark said, "Yeah, I bet you don't. And I bet you never smoke and eat all your vegetables and are in bed by 10."

Stark turned away from Steve and looked at me like he was measuring my bra size.

Stark softened his tone when he spoke to me. "And what about you? Are you sinful enough to drink, among other…things?"

His leer was confident.

I tried to be coy and lowered my voice. "I'm not a saint, but maybe later."

Steve frowned. "Do you know why we're here?"

Stark's eyes darted to the left, as if he was trying to remember. "She said she was eighteen."

Steve said, "We're here about a murder."

Stark said, "Oh, the Odin thing. Last time I checked it was still legal to serve defendants at a reading of the will. It's immoral and in bad taste, but still legal."

I said,"There was an explosion this morning shortly after your assistant Pepper Potts left the premises. Odin's six year old grandson Narvi, eight year old grandson Valli, and daughter-in-law Sigyn all died after a bomb exploded."

Pepper said, "Oh my God," and clutched her hands to her face. She seemed scared.

Stark's eyes darted faster. "I'm sorry to hear that. Is Pepper in trouble? Am in in trouble? Do I need a lawyer?"

Steve said, "Getting a lawyer makes you look guilty."

Stark said, "To Hell with it, I don't need a lawyer. I'm a genius. Do you really think I would be stupid enough to send my own assistant to a place right before a bomb went off? And why would I kill women and children?"

Steve said, "You're a weapons manufacturer. You're indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians. The bomb went off under Thor Odinson's car. I think you were aiming to kill Thor and the explosion went off at the wrong time."

Stark stood up. "I've never even met Thor Odinson. Plus, if a bomb went off at the wrong time, that proves it isn't one of mine. My technology is flawless."

Steve said, "Nothing is flawless."

Stark said, "I am."

Steve said, "I can smell by the gin on your breath that you're not flawless. Who drinks this early, unless they're trying to drown something out? Like the death of 3 innocents."

Stark said, "That just proves I'm an alcoholic. It doesn't make me a murderer."

I said, "But your money could pay for someone else to be a murderer. That makes you responsible."

Stark darted his gaze between Steve and me.

He said, "You have nothing else to leak this to me. You're just clutching at straws."

I said, "Is Bullseye the right straw?"

Stark looked blank. "Bullseye sounds like a kids' board game. I'm sorry people were killed, but this has nothing to do with me, and Pepper was just being my errand girl. I would never send her anywhere she would be in danger."

His expression didn't show any fear, panic, guilt or surprise. Pepper looked nervous but hopeful.

Steve said. "We're done here. But don't leave town for the next few weeks."

Stark said, "I wasn't planning on flying anywhere."

We left the building.

I said, "He's a cocky son of a bitch, but he wasn't acting guilty."

Steve said, "Unfortunately a lot of guilty people don't feel any guilt. I wasn't expecting a lady like you to swear."

"I'll try not to do it again in front of you. You really are a saint."

"I'm just a kid from Brooklyn that tries to do the right thing."

I said, "All we can do is try. I'll radio Clint and see if he has anything on Laufey."

I got through to him and Clint said, "I tracked Laufey to a bar in Queens. If we hurry we can catch him."

"How many lowlifes is he surrounded by?"

"It's strange. He's alone. There were other Icelanders in the bar, but he's sitting by himself. It's like he's been exiled."

I pondered the implications and had Steve drive us over as fast as possible.

**To Be Continued **


	14. Chapter 14

Avengers Noir Chapter 14

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence, death, and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Please read and review. It's very motivating.

**Author's Note: There is much more Natasha-Loki interaction in this chapter**

The Spider Bar in Queens wasn't a place I would visit unless I had to. Outdoor light only poured in through slats on the windows. The sky was overcast with an impending storm, which only made it darker.

Clint and I followed behind Captain Steve Rogers. The patrons stared with open hostility at us. I wasn't sure if coming with a police detective in full dress uniform would make us safer or more endangered.

Laufey sat in a corner booth like a king on a throne with no country. He was alone, nursing a beer and a cigar. He wore long sleeves, even though the temperature was hot.

Steve flashed his badge and said, "We'd like to talk to you."

Laufey sneered, "Like I have a choice about it?"

We scooted into the booth. I watched several Icelander henchman in the room glare at us. I recognized some of them from Odin's funeral and the tattoos on their wrists.

Steve asked, "Why are you by yourself, Laufey?"

Laufey stared down at the table, not making eye contact with any of us. "I felt like being alone. You're ruining it."

Clint said, "You organized crime guys never do anything alone, unless you've been kicked out. Why would you be exiled?"

I placed photographs of the explosion and corpses in front of him. "You killed women and children today. That's against the Icelander code, isn't it? Narvi and Vali Odinson could be your grandchildren."

Laufey looked broken, and his face twisted when I said "grandchildren." He face gave away far more than his words did. Steve didn't know Laufey was Loki's father, but Clint and I did.

Laufey took the longest drag possible from his cigar and exhaled. "It was an accident. You're blaming me for an accident."

Steve said, "I can help you if you plead guilty. Just admit you planted the bomb and I'll get it bumped down from First Degree murder to manslaughter. We could even work something out about you hiring Bullseye to kill Odin."

Laufey said, "I had nothing to do with Bullseye or Odin. I can't turn myself in."

Laufey had seemed prideful and concerned about his reputation the day I met him. I tried to use that.

I said, "You'll save face if you plead guilty. It will show you're a real man. It'll be easier if you do a stint in prison, turn over a new leaf, and show you reformed. You can come back as a truly legitimate businessman."

Laufey said, "Do you know what the inmates in prison do to guys who hurt children? I'm a dead man if I plead guilty."

Steve said, "You're a dead man if you fight the rap and try to stay on the street with no support from the other Icelanders."

Laufey said, "I've got support. You won't get a confession out of me. I didn't kill Odin."

I noticed he didn't deny killing Loki's family.

I asked, "Why are you covering up your wrists? Are you not allowed to show the tattoos anymore? Did they remove them when you were excommunicated?"

Laufey grimaced. "This is police harassment."

Clint said, "Good thing Natasha and I aren't police."

Steve said, "This is your last chance Laufey. Just confess."

Laufey said, "No."

Steve said, "You're not protected then. We'll be going."

Steve gestured for Clint and me to follow him. We left Laufey forlorn and isolated among his former minions.

I called Loki from a payphone.

Loki said, "Perhaps if you have Earth-shattering news, its best you give it to me in person. Can you stop by my place tonight?"

I hesitated, running my finger along the edge of the phone. I suspected what he was really asking for.

I said, "I'll take a cab."

Loki answered his door wearing just a robe and pajama bottoms. I was expecting when I came over that he'd be drinking, but he didn't smell of alcohol.

He said, "Thank you for coming. I don't suppose you'd be able to prepare a meal from what I have in my pantry?"

"Are you expecting me to cook dinner for you?"

I had a lot of survival skills. Cooking wasn't one of them.

"With Sigyn gone, I don't have anyone to make my meals. I never learned how."

"My cooking is as bad as my tea."

Loki looked disappointed. "I'll order Chinese for us."

I rested on the couch of his family room while he called a local restaurant. The family photos everywhere looked like a cruel mockery of what Loki had lost.

Loki rested next to me, just inches away. "How did your escapades with Captain America go?"

There was the slightest hint of jealousy in Loki's question.

"Captain Rogers is fine. He's a very good detective."

"What did you find out?"

I filled him in on Laufey's guilty behavior and apparent exile. Loki's lip curled.

He said, "What do you call it when a man who kills his own grandchildren? If a man kills his own father, it's patricide. If he kills his brother, it's fratricide. But his own grandchildren?"

"I call it a tragedy."

"I call him a monster. And this is where my blood comes from."

"Your children weren't monsters, and you aren't either."

Loki picked up one of the family photographs. "Hela is in the burn ward now. Half of her body will be deformed with scars for life. She's going to be a monster. I took all of my children for granted. At worst I thought of them as a burden."

I said, "The important thing is to be there for Hela now."

"I've been a horrible father and a terrible husband. I should have been in the car with them."

I squeezed his hand. "You're feeling survivor's guilt. It's normal."

He stared at me. "I wasn't in the car because I was spending time with you."

"Should I feel guilty for unintentionally saving your life?"

"No. Guilt is a useless emotion. I shouldn't be wallowing in self-pity or sentimentality."

"Well, you're expected to grieve. You wouldn't be human if you didn't after what you've been through."

"True." He laced his fingers through mine. "But there's no point in dwelling on the past. We can't control it. We can only control the present."

I knew exactly where he was going to take this, but played along. I let him think he was seducing me, but didn't want to make it seem too easy.

He brushed his leg against me and said, "Living for the moment is the only thing we can do, knowing death can come at any time. It is so important for us to find what happiness we can, to seize the day so to speak. To live life with no regrets."

I said, "This is all a ploy to try to get me in bed, isn't it?"

Loki looked taken aback. He let go of my hand.

"Why the bloody hell did you come over tonight? You promised if I wasn't married you would be with me."

I said, "You're twisting what I said. I didn't make an actual promise, and I wasn't expecting you would be widowed so quickly. It's in bad taste for you to be chasing after other women when your wife hasn't even been put in the ground yet."

Loki adopted the look of a whipped puppy. "You are cruel Natasha. The one positive thing in all of this is that I was freed to be with you. I am at my lowest point, and you reject me. You open my wounds and rub salt into them."

I let him think he was manipulating me.

I said, "I didn't say I was rejecting you. It's just the timing is bad. And it's hypocritical for you to bash guilt and then try to use it against me."

Loki said. "You're right darling. Guilt is the wrong emotion to push two extremely attractive recently widowed people entangled in a high-stakes mystery together."

"And what is the right emotion?"

He slid his hand down the front of my dress. "Lust."

His little boy lost depressed demeanor was replaced with something more predatory. I laid back and didn't stop Loki as he loomed over me. I wrapped my arms around him under his robe. He was lean, but well-muscled.

Loki said, "The only timing that matters is right here and right now, just you and I."

I felt like he was using a line from a romance or pulp novel, but I went along with it and let him kiss me. It was full of possession and sin and everything wrong that shouldn't have felt so right.

To Be Continued.


	15. Chapter 15

Avengers Noir Chapter 15

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence, death, and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Thank you to the people who read and review. It's very motivating. Sorry for the length between updates.

**Author's Note: This is rated T, so it's not quite explicit**

Loki was still on top of me when the doorbell rang. In the heat of the moment, I'd forgotten about the food he'd ordered.

The delivery boy said, "Shang Chi's Cantonese delivery service!"

Loki crawled off of me, and I felt exposed. Our clothes were strewn on the floor in a tangle.

Loki called, "I'll be there in a moment."

I tried to dress as quickly as possible, gathering my skirt, my top and my shoes. He had ripped one of my garters so I couldn't put my stockings back on.

I whispered, "I'll stay behind. No one needs to know I'm here."

He nodded as he covered himself with his robe. His pale complexion had a rosy morning after tint. His lips were swollen from kissing and his ebony hair was messed up on top and slicked down with sweat on the bottom.

There was an arrogance in his step as he sauntered across the marble floor. He whistled the song "Ride of the Valkyries" from one of Richard Wagner's operas.

I wasn't feeling his confidence at all, but an overwhelming sense of guilt. Should I be feeling guilty, or should I just enjoy feeling good for a change?

We hadn't used any so-called protection, other than him asking how long it had been since my last "time of the month." Trusting not to get pregnant from "The Rhythm Method" wasn't the safest form of birth control.

I peeked through the living room door into the foyer as Loki opened the door to the delivery boy. He appeared young, possibly in his late teens.

The boy said, "Shrimp Fried Rice, Lobster with Ginger and Scallions, Sweet and Sour Chicken and Won Ton Soup."

Loki took the food from him. "Thank you. Do you include a time of delivery on the receipt?"

The boy looked alarmed. "I got here within 30 minutes sir."

"I had no problem with your timing. Don't worry. You'll get a generous tip. What's your name, boy?"

"It's Peter. Peter Parker. Is someone else here with you?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

Loki was so nonchalant about lying, he may as well have been talking about the weather.

Peter said, "You ordered too much food for one person. And you look like you've been busy."

Loki grinned like a wood-carving of Satan dancing over souls he had damned. "Are you a detective of sorts?"

"No, just an aspiring photographer."

"If you aspire to be anything, it's best to respect other men's discretions. Have a good evening."

Loki paid him and locked the door after he left.

We ate dinner in the dining room. In some ways it felt even more awkward than the last time I had a meal in front of his family, but I didn't show it.

He said, "You're perfectly welcome to spend the night."

I swallowed my rice. "Thank you, but that's probably not a good idea. The longer I stay, the more likely someone, someone who matters, will find out."

Loki's lip curled. "Are you embarrassed to be with me?"

"It's not you, it's the situation. It looks bad so quickly after your wife's death."

Loki sighed. "My relationship with Sigyn was dead for years. We slept in separate beds, and we stopped having marital relations after Narvi was born."

I frowned. Loki seemed too talented in bed to have gone without sex for years. I suspected he must have gotten "practice" elsewhere.

I said, "I'm not the first woman you pursued on the side, am I?"

Loki looked at me quizzically. "Do you want me to lie to you, tell you you're special, that you were the first woman who tempted me? Would that matter?"

"I don't want to be lied to."

He sighed. "In the past, there were a few. Sigyn never really…she never seemed to enjoy making the beast with two backs with me. Sex was something she submitted to to please me or to bear children. Not that I don't relish submission, but I prefer for my woman to like it. I could have forced her to if I wanted, taken my privileges as her husband. Instead I found other outlets for my needs. It seemed best for both of us that way."

"Are there any other outlets I should know about?"

Loki ran his fingers through my hair. "If you're concerned about there being other women, I promise you're the only one now. Of course, I expect the same loyalty to me from you."

Part of me still didn't trust him. If he was capable of infidelity and lying in the past, what would stop him from doing the same to me?

He pulled me in and kissed me. It was too tempting to bury my doubts and give in to him.

I kissed him back and whispered, "Does this mean we're 'going steady' now? That's such a childish term."

"With you it feels adult. Everything feels adult."

He nibbled on my ear. "Spend the night with me. Or at least have a drink."

I sighed, "One drink, and then I'll see how I feel."

He grinned and left the room. He returned with two full wine glasses and handed me one. I sipped from it as he stared at me. It tasted strange.

I asked, "What kind of a drink is this?"

"A 1929 Merlot. Its bouquet is woody."

I wondered if "woody" was a ritzy euphemism for medicine, but didn't want to be rude. I finished the drink.

Loki led me back to the couch, and everything blended together after that.

A loud knock awakened me. We were in Loki's bed. The master bedroom did have separate beds, identical except for a pink comforter on Sigyn's bed and the green blanket that covered Loki and I.

I blinked against the piercing sunlight. My head throbbed with a hangover headache.

Loki groaned next to me and rose. "Who the bloody hell is it at this time of day?"

I looked to the clock. "It's only…11:30 AM."

Loki walked to the front door. I tried to find my clothes, but had to wrap myself in a sheet temporarily.

Loki said, "Who is it?"

"It's Captain Steve Rogers. Laufey was murdered last night."

To be continued.


	16. Chapter 16

Avengers Noir Chapter 16

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence, death, and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Thank you to the people who read and review. It's very motivating.

I closed the bedroom door and tried to be as quiet as possible while I continued to search for my clothes, listen to Loki's conversation with Steve, and process everything that was going on. Steve Rogers was the last person I wanted to find out about my relationship with Loki. Actually, he was the second last, after Clint.

Loki said, "Thank you for telling me, but a phone call would have sufficed."

Steve said, "I thought it best to tell you the man who killed your wife and sons was dead in person. May I come in?"

I hoped Loki would say no.

Loki sighed, "Please enter. I'm afraid my place is a shambles. It's already missing a woman's touch."

I suspected Steve wanted to see him in person to better interrogate him as a potential suspect. He couldn't be a suspect, because he was with me last night. Except, how much of last night did I actually remember?

Loki asked, "Who reported the body?"

Steve said, "His maid discovered him. He has no family."

Loki asked, "What do you believe is the suspected cause of death?"

"Gunshot wound to the forehead."

"Were there two bullets, the same as with my father?"

"Only one, shot at point blank range."

I wasn't finding my clothes. I opened the closet door and saw Sigyn's dresses. They were pretty but dull. I selected a green one. Sigyn had been shorter than me and was two sizes bigger, so the fit was off.

Loki said, "Only one. That is interesting. Who are your main suspects?"

Steve said, "Who do you think?"

"Thor. He did publicly threaten to kill the man. Or possibly another one of his Icelander associates. After all, you did question him yesterday in full view of his partners in crime. One of them could have suspected he was about to confess or turn State's Evidence against the rest of them, and murdered him before he could talk."

"Cut the horse pucky with me, Loki. Where were you last night?"

"Did you actually say horse pucky?"

"Answer my question. And may I remind you that lying in a police investigation is a punishable offense."

"I was here in my apartment all night."

"Do you have any witnesses?"

"I ordered Chinese delivery. I have the receipt. The delivery boy Peter Parker should remember the timing. I gave him a 40% tip."

"You could have ordered dinner before or after you killed Laufey."

Loki raised his voice. "I did not kill Laufey."

Steve's tone was softer, even a bit compassionate. "I'm not blaming you for this. No one will blame you for going after the man who killed your family. No jury will convict you. You could plea bargain down to second or third degree manslaughter, say it was a crime of passion and you were crazy with grief, but you'll have to confess. For once in your life Loki, just be honest."

"I didn't do it."

"You have more motive than anyone and you have no one to back up your alibi. You're the number one Person of Interest in Laufey's death."

I was getting nervous. Would Loki keep me a secret, or sell me out to save his own hide?

Loki said, "I do have someone to confirm my alibi. Natasha darling, please come out."

That bastard! That manipulative, self-serving dirty rat.

I gritted my teeth. I could lock the door, but that would give away that someone was here and Loki probably had a key. I could hide, but my pride wouldn't let me.

I grudgingly opened the bedroom door and walked into the hallway. I may as well have been bathed in a fluorescent spotlight.

Steve stared at me with disappointment. I had started to like him and enjoyed working with him, but from the look on his face I didn't believe he would want to join forces with me anytime soon.

Loki gave Steve a smug 'I told you so' look.

Steve said, "Miss Romanoff. Were you with him for all of last night?"

I looked at Loki. His eyes were pleading to me, like the expression of a puppy begging its owner not to be punished.

I steeled myself. "I can't lie to a police officer. I was here for all of last evening."

Loki exhaled in what I assumed was relief.

I thought about the funny taste of the Merlot and how I had blacked out so quickly. Could Loki have drugged me? How crazy would it sound if I accused him of that in front of a police officer?

I added, "But in all honesty, I was so drunk last night I can't remember if Loki was here with me."

Steve frowned at me. I could see his opinion dropping more and more. I questioned why I cared so much. I wasn't normally the type of person to be ruled by other's opinions of me.

I realized it was because Captain Steve Rogers was one of the obvious good guys. Clint admired him, and he was a true hero. I liked to think of myself as one of the so-called good guys. Hell, no one thinks of themselves as a bad guy, even Al Capone thought of himself as a legitimate businessman, but now I was starting to doubt my place in the world. I was certainly starting to think of myself as a "bad girl."

Steve said, "Smart, really. If you claim you can't remember, you can't be prosecuted for lying. Except you already swore to me that you and Loki hadn't even kissed, so your word is as useless as his is."

I said, "I was telling the truth. It isn't your business, but nothing happened between Loki and me until last night."

Steve said, "Alibis are always police business."

Loki asked, "Is it possible for you to be a gentleman about this and leave Natasha's name out of any reports you submit?"

Steve said, "I can't do that. If you want men to act like gentlemen around you Loki, you need to start behaving like one yourself."

I asked, "Does this mean you won't be cooperating with Clint and Hawkeye investigations anymore?"

Steve said, "I don't think I'll be working with you again, Miss Romanoff. I doubt the Department would let me, even if I wanted to. Clint himself is another story."

I said, "Could I please talk to Clint first about what is going on, before it gets put in print?"

Steve said, "You have until Five."

Steve exited the apartment, leaving a trail of coldness.

I was feeling my life crumble around me. I was about to be labelled a tramp and a drunkard in a police report. I would have to confess to Clint and prepare myself for his reaction, both personal and professional. All of this was because of Loki.

Loki said, "That…didn't go as awfully as it could have."

I slapped Loki so hard across the face my hand cracked.

To Be Continued.


	17. Chapter 17

Avengers Noir Chapter 17

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence, death, and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Thank you to the people who read and review.

I was seeing red everywhere: red from my hair falling across my eyes, red from the welt across Loki's face where I slapped him, and symbolic red from the anger welling up within me.

I hissed, "You used me, you bastard. You used me as a cover to kill Laufey."

"Nat, please don't get hysterical. You don't need to act like a stereotypical fiery redhead."

How dare he imply I was overreacting.

"You have no right to call me 'Nat.' You had no right to drag me into this."

Loki grabbed my shoulders. "Natasha, please. I had no choice. I can't go to prison. And all I did was tell Rogers the truth. I was here with you last night. It's hardly my fault if you can't hold your alcohol."

"You drugged me."

"Now you're being paranoid. I did no such thing."

"Then how come I don't remember?"

"Perhaps the Merlot just didn't agree with you. I had no control over that."

He slid his hands to cradle my face. "Do you honestly believe, that after finally gaining your love, I would leave your side in the dead of night to murder a man who was well on his way to being arrested anyhow? Do you think so little of your allure to me?"

I didn't like how he twisted everything around. I didn't like his obvious attempts at manipulation. I pulled back from him and crossed my arms.

I asked, "Did you do it? And don't lie to me."

He stared at me. He was taking too long to answer. People blurt or stammer the truth out, but liars take more time to concoct a falsehood, no matter how good they are. He put his hand to his forehead as if afflicted by another migraine. Yet another stall tactic.

He said, "I'm innocent. If the police do their jobs correctly, I'm sure they'll find evidence to clear my name."

I wanted to believe him, but I couldn't.

I said, "The day I met you, you said no one is innocent. You said everyone is dirty if you dig deep enough. I wish I'd never met you."

Loki looked more hurt than after I had physically slapped him across the face. I felt sick to my stomach and had to get out of there. I started for the door.

Loki grabbed my wrist. "You have nothing to gain from abandoning me. You don't work for Laufey. You don't work for Rogers. After today, you may not even work for Clint anymore. You work for me."

"You don't own me. And you don't know Clint."

"I know how men think. Why do you really believe he hired you to work for him? It certainly wasn't for your brainpower. After he learns I had you too, I'm sure his true colors will come out. I'm the only ally you have left, darling."

His grip on me grew tighter. I wanted to hit him again, to smash his head in with a vase, to shoot him with one of my guns. Except, my guns were with my real clothes, not Loki's poor wife's dress I was still wearing.

I asked, "Are you threatening me?"

"I don't threaten. I persuade."

I took a deep breath. How could I get him to confess?

I said, "Let's say I leave your place, go straight to a hospital, and have them test me for any drugs in my system. Let's say they do find traces of a sleeping pill, and I report you to the police for slipping me a mickey. That would look really bad for you."

Loki swallowed. "It would be your word against mine. I could twist it around, paint you as a drug addict."

I steeled myself. "We made love yesterday. That means your bodily fluids are still in me. Combined with me testing positive for being drugged, that makes you look even worse."

He scoffed, "You gave yourself to me last night before I drugged you. You wanted it."

"Even now, you cling to your arrogance. Jurors hate arrogant men."

"And Jurors hate false accusations of rape."

"No, you're not a rapist, you're just a man who killed his own father. Both of them."

"I didn't kill Odin."

"But Laufey was fair game."

"The world is a better place with him gone."

"That wasn't your decision to make. Why couldn't you just have let the police arrest him, instead of becoming a vigilante?"

"I had to confront him myself while I still had a chance. I had to look him in the eyes and ask if he knew he was my father, if he hired Bullseye to kill Odin, if he knew he killed his own grandchildren!"

"What did he say to you that made you think it was alright to murder him at point blank range?"

Loki was crying now. "Laufey said he didn't have anything to do with Odin's death. He said he knew he was my father all these years, and he didn't care. I was an embarrassment to him. He would never acknowledge me because it was too humiliating to have a son turn out as weak as me. He said it was too bad Thor wasn't his real child, he would at least be man enough to pull the trigger."

I thought back to the last time I saw Laufey, and how defeated he had seemed. Loki could be lying about Laufey's final words to make himself look better, but if this version was true, it had other implications.

I said, "Laufey wanted to die. He used you to commit suicide."

Loki got a confused expression on his face.

I said, "He manipulated you. Icelander organized crime comes from an honor-bound testosterone-poisoned society. They're not allowed to commit suicide."

"Other people don't manipulate me, I manipulate other….oh. Well, that just proves I really am innocent. I didn't murder anyone, I just helped them along."

"Keep lying to yourself, Loki. If you didn't intend to commit first degree cold-blooded murder, why did you drug me?"

"I was trying to protect you. If you were unconscious, you'd have plausible deniability."

"Yeah, you really protected me from Steve Rogers today."

"I'm just trying to keep from being arrested. Besides, I think you don't really need anyone to protect you. I think you're a lot like me, if you'd just lose that pesky conscience of yours."

"If you had any ethics, you would turn yourself in."

Loki said, "Think of what you're asking me to do. I have responsibilities. I have my handicapped daughter to take care of. I'll need to clean up Thor's messes. I still don't know who hired Bullseye. Besides, you're still here with me, instead of confessing to Clint."

I sighed. I couldn't be a hypocrite.

I asked, "Where's your phone?"

Loki pointed to the study. I entered it and closed the door. There was no need for Loki to overhear my conversation, so I purposely turned on a radio to block out sound.

I dialed the Hawkeye Investigations phone, but no one picked up. I tried the two-way radio, which Clint always carried when he was out of the office. I still got no response. I started to get worried.

I turned the music off. It was quiet in the apartment. Too quiet. What if Loki had fled? I shouldn't have left him alone after everything he had confessed to me.

I turned a corner. Looming in front of me was a nightmare. Loki was sitting on the floor with his wrists tied together and duct tape over his mouth. His head was held up by Gargan's left hand. Gargan's right hand clutched a gun, which he pointed at me.

Gargan said, "Scream and you die. Put your hands up over your head."

I looked around the room. There were signs of a struggle, with papers knocked to the floor.

I asked, "Where's your friend Bullseye?"

Gargan smiled like a crocodile. "Oh don't worry about him. He's keeping your buddy Barton company. We warned you to stop asking questions about us."

To be continued.


	18. Chapter 18

Avengers Noir Chapter 18

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence, death, and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Thank you to the people who read and review. It's very motivating.

Gargan ordered me, "Get on your knees and keep your hands where I can see them."

I slowly obeyed, trying to buy time. I tried to keep as calm as possible, knowing if I panicked it could be the death of me. I was used to having Clint by my side, but everything was on me this time.

Gargan dropped Loki's head and he thudded to the ground. I could see the terror in his eyes.

My attacker pulled out a roll of duct tape and bound my arms together. I looked for something, anything I could use. Under the sofa, crumpled in a ball were my clothes from last night. My guns could still be in them.

Gargan pulled out a piece of tape to cover my mouth with.

I said, "Please, tell me what you want."

"I'm here with a loaded pistol you stupid dame. What do you think I want?"

I wiggled forward, trying to get closer to the sofa.

I said, "If you fire a gun, the police will come. The neighbors will hear."

"It has a silencer."

"There's no need to gag me too."

Gargan growled, "There is if you keep yapping."

"Whatever he's paying you, I can pay more. Loki can pay for our lives. Anything you want, just please don't hurt us."

Loki nodded his head and made muffled sounds of agreement.

"She ain't paying me to touch the rich boy. Just to shut you up."

I perked up when Gargan said "She."

I said, "I'll be quiet, I promise. I'll quit the case today. We'll tell the police Laufey hired you to kill Odin, instead of…Amora."

Gargan looked confused. "Who the hell is Amora? I never said…wait a second. I know what you're doing. I'm shutting you the hell up now."

I thought he was about to shoot me but Loki butted his head into him, knocking him forward. Gargan fell on top of me. It was like being crushed by an alien ox.

I screamed and struggled, trying to push his gun away while my hands were still bound at the wrists. The gun fired, muffled by the silencer but still reminding me of death.

I coughed out, "My guns…in my dress…under sofa."

Gargan hissed, "Kill you…you dumb…kill you."

I bit him on the arm. He bellowed and dropped the gun. His hands went to my throat and I choked.

He smiled, and in my mind he had a deformed mouth full of fangs, rows and rows of canines and the pointed tongue of a venomous snake. I feared the oxygen cut off from my brain was making me hallucinate.

BANG!

Gargan's eyes rolled back and his hands went slack. He collapsed in a dead weight pinning me to the ground. The stench of gunpowder and blood filled my nose.

Loki loomed over me and Gargan's corpse. His bound hands held my gun, still smoking. The tape covering his mouth moved in and out, as if he was hyperventilating.

He put the gun down and started to push the brute's corpse off of me. I pressed up and helped.

_There's something I need to remember._

Loki pulled me into a sitting position. We stared at each other for a few moments. I felt waves of shock, adrenaline, and relief all at once. I used my hands to pull the tape off of his lips. He gasped.

I said, "Scissors, or a knife, for our hands."

"Second drawer over there."

I shakily stood up and opened a drawer. It held a jeweled letter opener. I used it to cut Loki's arms apart, and he returned the favor.

_There's something I need to remember. _

We both sat on the sofa. Gargan's body lay in a pool of crimson blood. His mouth was open with his tongue hanging out.

Loki put his arm around me. His right hand cupped my shoulder. It felt soft, but it was the same hand used to pull the trigger to kill two men in less than 24 hours. But, who had really ordered Odin's death? Who set this cycle of violence in motion?

I let my breathing slow. "Loki, Gargan said he was hired by a woman, and it wasn't Amora. Who is the one woman who wouldn't want you touched by men she hired to murder?"

Loki said, "No, don't say it."

"Your mother."

He screamed, "That's not true! That can't be true!"

"Who else could it be? She has the money to afford assassins, she found out Odin was cheating on her so she has motive, she got upset when she learned you hired Clint and me…Oh my God, Clint. I have to call the police! I have to warn them about Bullseye."

I leapt up and ran to the phone, hurriedly dialing 911.

"Natasha, wait, we need to get our stories straight first."

I panted, "There's no time…hello operator…it's an emergency. Send someone to Hawkeye Investigations at 616 South Broad Street. Clint Barton is being attacked by a man named Lester or Bullseye. Yes, I'll hold, just send someone."

Loki whispered in my ear, "Don't tell the police any more than they need to know about what happened here, until we get everything sorted out."

I covered the mouthpiece, "We'll have to report Gargan attacking us, or it'll look suspicious."

An unfamiliar man's voice came on the phone. "This is Colonel Nick Fury. Who am I speaking with?"

"My name is Natasha Romanoff. I'm Clint Barton's partner. Please send someone to 616 South Broad Street."

Fury said, "I've traced your call to an apartment registered to Loki Odinson. Are you safe?"

Loki's eyes got wide. He started scribbling a note on a piece of paper.

I said, "Please take care of Clint first. We were attacked. Another man broke into Loki's apartment."

Loki held up the paper. It had the words scrawled, "GO INTO HYSTERICAL MODE SAY YOU'RE NOT SAFE HERE. WE'RE LEAVING FOR MY MOTHERS."

I segued into acting, "I don't think I'm safe here, he broke the lock, please I have to get out of here. I'll have to call you back. It's not safe here."

Loki hung the phone up and led me away.

I said, "I have to help Clint."

"You did what you bloody could and called the police. We're too far away to reach him in time anyhow. There is nothing more you can do."

"But I have…"

He shouted, "I will not let your guilty conscience ruin my life!"

I broke from his grip.

Loki looked contrite. "I'm sorry. The police will be swarming here any moment. You can call them from a pay phone in 20 minutes or so and see if there's word."

I nodded reluctantly. Loki grabbed a box and led me to his rental car.

We drove for several miles. Loki rested his hand on my knee and caressed it. I couldn't relax.

He kept murmuring things like, "We'll get through this together, I promise. It's us against the world."

Loki pulled over to a rest stop next to a river. He threw the box into it.

Words like, "accessory to murder…accomplice…conspiracy" circled though my mind. I didn't ask what was in the box. It was probably the gun used to kill Laufey, or the drugs Loki had used on me, or something worse.

I dialed the police from a pay phone. They put me through to Fury.

He said, "Clint Barton called us. He's healthy. The Bullseye killer tried to murder him with something crazy, like chop sticks. But he's ok. He's coming in to the station to make a statement. He asked about you."

I sighed with relief. "Please tell him I'm fine."

Fury asked, "You're with Loki Odinson, aren't you?"

I swallowed. "Yes."

"I sent a squad car to his apartment. They found the corpse of a former private eye named MacDonald Gargan with his brains blown out on the living room carpet. Would you like to tell me what the hell is going on?"

Loki took the phone from my hand and said, "This is Loki. I'm afraid we can't talk now. I have to take care of my family. I'll give you a statement when I've…recovered."

He hung up.

We drove to the Odinson family mansion. It looked different to me this time. It looked smaller, but more dangerous.

Loki knocked on the door. Frigga opened it. She looked alarmed when she saw me.

Loki said, "Mother, I must have words with you."

**To be continued.**


	19. Chapter 19

Avengers Noir Chapter 19

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence, death, and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Thank you to the people who read and review. It's very motivating.

Frigga let us in. Her eyes were smeared with black and her hair was tangled in an unwashed mess. I suspected she hadn't showered since yesterday. It was a far cry from how elegant she appeared when I first saw her.

Loki said, "I know the truth, mother. I know you hired the assassins Bullseye and Gargan to kill father. And I know Laufey was my real father."

Frigga stared at him. How would she react? Would she deny it, place blame elsewhere, or admit it?

She said, "How did you know? How did you find out?"

Loki's shoulders slumped, as if he had been holding out hope she was innocent and she just destroyed it. He looked at me. Frigga watched us and frowned.

She said, "You shouldn't have brought outsiders into our family business."

He said, "You have your own husband murdered, and dare speak of family to me!"

"Don't talk to me in that tone of voice. I am still your mother. These are things you wouldn't understand."

Loki pressed his hand to his temple. "Explain to me why. I have a right to know. I demand to know why."

Frigga mirrored Loki and clutched her forehead in her hands. She collapsed into a chair.

She sobbed, "You don't know what it was like to be married to someone like Odin, to devote my entire life to a man, only to have him betray me over and over again."

I interjected, "Plenty of people have an unfaithful spouse, but it doesn't justify killing them."

Frigga said, "It wasn't just the betrayal, it was the hypocrisy, and his arrogance. Our marriage started out happy. For years things went well. Then Thor was born, and things started to change. I became more of a mother and less of a wife. Thor was such a handful, he took all of my attention away from Odin. We drifted apart, started sleeping in separate beds, and then bedrooms. He started running around with younger women."

Loki looked guilty.

I asked gently, "Is that when Laufey came in?"

Frigga wiped away a tear. "Everyone thinks he's a horrible man, but there was another side to him. A side only I could see. I know he was brutal and hotheaded and ruthless, but he was also passionate and smart and sensitive. I knew he was trouble, but I couldn't resist."

Frigga's tale was uncomfortably familiar. I glanced up at Loki.

She said, "I got pregnant, and Odin knew it couldn't be his."

Loki said, "It."

Frigga grabbed Loki's hands. "I didn't mean it like that. You are the world to me. You've always been my favorite. Having you temporarily saved my marriage. It forced Odin and me to start talking again about what we needed, about what we weren't getting from each other anymore. He promised he would be faithful if I gave up Laufey."

I asked, "Did you love him?"

Frigga looked confused. "Odin or Laufey?"

"Either or both."

She dabbed at her eyes. "I loved Odin, but I was in love with Laufey."

I pondered my own feelings. Love was friendship and affection, like what I had with Clint. Being in love was about passion and need, even though I knew it was bad for me.

Frigga said, "Which made it hurt all the more after I gave Laufey up, and Odin went back to his old ways. He took up with that tramp Amora, a girl the age of my own sons. I confronted him about it, and he said it didn't matter what I said, he was the man and he had the power and there was nothing I could do about it. I brought up how it had made him feel when I had an affair. He said it didn't matter anymore because I was too old for another man to want me. I told him I would kill him if he went to her again. So, he went to her again. And I kept my promise."

I asked, "Why hire Bullseye?"

"He was the best Odin's money could buy. I figured no one would suspect me, that it would be pinned on one of Odin's enemies. He made so many enemies over the years, someone would have gotten to him sooner or later. I ordered Bullseye to make it painless. At least from my order, it was painless."

I asked, "Did you order Bullseye and his buddy Gargan to kill me and my partner painlessly, too?"

She frowned. "They were just supposed to scare you off of the case."

Loki said, "They attacked us at my home today. I shot Gargan this morning."

Frigga screamed, "Oh my God, no! All I said was get rid of the private eyes."

I said, "What the hell do you think "get rid of" means?"

Loki snapped at me, "Don't talk to my mother like that."

I wanted to give a sarcastic retort, but restrained myself. I knew never to come between a boy and his mother. Especially if both were deadly.

She said. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to escalate the way it has. I never meant for your children, my grandchildren, to get caught in the crossfire. Do they know for sure Laufey set the explosion off?"

Loki said, "It was Laufey, trying to get back at idiot Thor. He admitted it to me last night. Right before I shot him. Unlike you, I pull the trigger myself instead of hiring lowlifes to do it."

Loki could insult his mother, but I couldn't.

She burst out crying. "Our family is a Greek tragedy."

I deadpanned, "Or Nordic-American Opera, with a touch of Shakespeare. So, are you going to atone and turn yourselves in?"

Loki and Frigga both gave me matching glares filled with rage. Like mother, like son. It struck me how isolated I was at the Odinson estate, and how possibly dangerous that could be. If they were so vicious to family members, what could an interloper like me hope for?

Loki walked towards me. I hadn't been afraid of him until now. He tried to come up behind me, but I turned to face him.

He said, "Natasha darling, my mother is not getting the death penalty or prison, nor am I. You wouldn't benefit from that at all."

I hid my fear. "You're right. I wouldn't turn my own client in. I'm on your side. Everything you say."

He caressed the side of my face, "Are you being sincere about that? Because I know you, and you seem scared. You and I have gotten to know each other so intimately over these past few weeks. We killed a man together, you and I. That creates a bond between two people together that can never be broken."

Frigga said, "Did you kill Laufey or Gargan or Bullseye together, because I'm a bit confused."

Loki looked annoyed. "It was Gargan. We don't know what happened to Bullseye yet."

I put on my weak act and hugged Loki. "I'm so scared. What if Bullseye comes after us? Promise you'll protect us."

He hugged me back.

Frigga said, "I did not pay him to kill Loki or me."

I said, "He's insane enough to kill people for fun. We won't be safe. We'll have to go to the police for protection."

Loki said, "We're not going to the bloody police for anything. I'll handle this."

I squeezed him closer. "What is your play, I mean…plan?"

Loki looked deep in thought, and then a grin spread on his lips.

"I have a brilliant idea. We'll say that Gargan confessed to being hired by Laufey to kill Odin, and then Laufey refused to pay him, so they killed him in revenge. If Bullseye is dead, he won't be able to ever verify it, and if he's alive mother will have to pay him more money to keep his mouth shut."

I said, "I'm hoping for dead. I don't know if money will help with a guy like him."

Loki said, "Just do your part Natasha. All you have to do is say Gargan confessed."

He was asking me to perjure myself. He was asking me to compromise my beliefs. He was asking me to abandon any pretense of being one of the so-called good guys and become one of the bad.

I chose my next words carefully. "If I go through with this, if I cover for you and let you and your mother literally get away with murder, what happens to me?"

Loki cradled my face. "I could marry you."

Frigga exclaimed, "What?!"

Loki said, "Think about it. If you pull through this for me, and I married you, my portion of the Odinson fortune, my property, and my personal influence, all of it would be yours to share."

I said, "This wouldn't have something to do with the law that a wife can't be compelled to testify against her husband in court, does it?"

"That helps, but you're destroying the romance of this moment. Will you, Natasha become my bride?"

To be continued.


	20. Chapter 20

Avengers Noir Chapter 20

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence, death, and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Thank you to the people who read and review

I walked through the police station feeling as if I was a spy on enemy territory. But was I going to be an old-fashioned spy, or a double agent? I was there to give an official statement on what happened.

Loki was supposedly in an interrogation room with Steve Rogers, giving his version of events. I'd memorized the lies Loki wanted us both to tell. He wanted me to swear under oath that Gargan confessed to Laufey being behind everything. To his face I had promised to follow his cover up. Whether I could go through with it was a different story.

I hadn't given him a yes or no answer on his marriage proposal. I told him it was something I couldn't rush into. The truth was, I needed to talk to Clint first.

I turned a corner and saw Clint sitting on a bench. He had a black eye and bandages on his arms. He wasn't alone, but with his fiancée, Barbara "Bobbi" Morse. They clutched each other as she chatted away.

They both looked up. Bobbi always wore oversize black and white cat's eye glasses, but through her lenses she appeared glad to see me. Clint didn't crack a smile, but just stared. I felt a pang in my stomach.

She came forward and hugged me. "Natasha, I'm so glad you're safe. When I heard Clint was attacked, I left school early."

I hugged her back. Clint stared at me, still not smiling or showing any emotion.

I said, "Thank you. That's very sweet."

She said, "Let me know if you need anything."

I wondered if Bobbi was truly as good and nice as she acted, or if her behavior was a ploy to kiss up to her fiancé's ex so I would feel too guilty to steal her man. The cynicism of the Odinson family tree was getting to me.

I said, "You're a saint Bobbi, really. Could I speak to Clint alone for a bit? It's a client confidentiality issue."

Clint said, "Yeah, Sweetheart. Get yourself some lunch. Take all the time you need."

She cocked her head appraisingly at me, nodded, and then kissed Clint square on the lips. It was as if she was marking her territory. She left us in the hallway.

I listened to the sounds around us, determining if anyone could be eavesdropping. I heard the clicking of typewriters, and ringing of phones. People seemed caught up in the drama if their own lives.

I said, "I'm so happy you weren't seriously hurt or worse. What happened?"

Clint said, "Bullseye had to prove he was the best shot in the world, so he tried to ice me with chopsticks. Not even metal ones, but those cheap wooden ones they give to tourists. If he would have kept his mouth shut and ego under control and used a normal bullet, he could've killed me. I got one of my trick arrows through his skull. His corpse is in the autopsy room."

I wondered if Dr. Bruce Banner would be vindicated to have the Bullseye Killer on his slab.

I said, "That's wonderful. Hawkeye Investigations will get great publicity from this."

"If there still is a Hawkeye Investigations after this week. I had a little talk with Steve Roger's boss, a man named Nick Fury."

I stopped breathing. Fury probably saw right through Loki's cover-up. Our behavior of fleeing the crime scene was too suspicious. Fury must have told Clint about his doubts.

He said, "Fury is putting a team together. It's a squad that's free of the corruption of the rest of the department. The best and the brightest. He invited me to join. If I take him up on it, I have to pass some training to become a sworn police officer, and I wouldn't have time to be a private eye anymore."

I processed what he was saying. "It sounds like a once in a lifetime opportunity. If that's what you want to do, you have my blessing."

"Your blessing? Gee, Tasha, that's swell that you give me your blessing. Especially after you waited to get my blessing before you ran off and fucked Loki!"

His voice rose with anger. His steel grey eyes took on the color of a hurricane at dusk.

The clicking of typewriters stopped. A few people's heads swiveled to us.

I said softly, "Rogers was supposed to let me tell you myself."

"He didn't have to. Fury told me you were with Loki this morning and I figured everything out. I should have seen the signs of it coming, all the time you were spending with him, the distance growing between us. And the fact that you lied to me about it."

"I never lied to you. I just didn't volunteer information that wasn't your business."

"Not my business? We're supposed to be best friends. We're supposed to trust each other."

For the first time, I raised my voice as well. "Is this friendship between us? Is it? Because you're acting more like a jealous boyfriend that's been dumped."

Clint's voice cracked. "This isn't the first time you picked another man over me. You picked Alexei over me."

Clint wiped a tear away. For someone as hyper-masculine as he was to break down and cry meant he had to be at rock bottom.

I hated this. I hated every second of this. People talked as if lies were so awful, but the cold, hard truth coming out in the open could freeze our very souls.

I said, "I'm sorry if you're still in love with me, but you and me, we just weren't meant to be. I never held it against you that you're engaged to Bobbi."

"That's different. Bobbi is a nice girl. Loki is a stuck-up, spoiled, rich pig. I know guys like him, guys with money. They think the rules don't apply to them, that they're entitled to everything. He's using you. He's just using you and he'll throw you away when he gets bored. He'll never fall in love with you like I did."

"He asked me to marry him."

Clint looked dumfounded.

I said, "For all the time you've spent with me, you never asked me to marry you. You can't commit. At least he can."

"Now you're the jealous one. I can commit. I'm engaged to Bobbi."

"You've been engaged for over a year and the wedding date still hasn't been set yet. What are you waiting for? Oh, right. You've been waiting for me to fall back in love with you. It sounds you're just using Bobbi as a placeholder for me."

Clint said, "That's not true. I love her."

"You love her, but you're in love with me. That's not a disaster waiting to happen."

"And you marrying Loki isn't a nuclear train wreck? It doesn't even make sense. You've known each other for less than a month. Unless you're pregnant or…it's a payoff. He asked you to marry him as a payoff. You found out something on him, didn't you? He's the real killer, isn't he? He's the one who hired Bullseye. And you're blackmailing him. Jesus Christ, you're even worse than I thought."

Clint actually took a step back from me. The look in his eyes was pure condemnation. I could feel the bridge between us burning.

I said with robotic calmness, "You're letting jealousy get ahold of your imagination. Gargan confessed Laufey hired him and Bullseye, and when he didn't pay them they killed him in revenge. That is all I have to say on the subject."

Clint hissed, "How much is Loki paying you to sell your soul?"

I heard Loki's voice behind me. "Really, Mr. Barton. You had no qualms about taking my money for your services yourself."

I bristled. I wasn't used to people sneaking up behind me. It was usually the other way around. So much in my life was changing.

I asked, "How long have you been listening?"

"Long enough, darling."

Clint stepped forward with his fists clinched. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't beat you to death."

Loki didn't flinch, but met him in the hallway. "I can give you several. We're standing in a police station with several witnesses. In front of these witnesses you just admitted to being in love with my fiancée, and after she rejected you, you started making slanderous accusations against both her and me in a state of clear emotional instability. To top things off, you just committed assault and battery by threatening to kill me with your bare hands."

Even if it was clear Clint hated me now, I didn't want Loki to humiliate him.

I said, "Don't do this to him. Please."

Loki narrowed his eyes at me, and looked back at Clint.

He said in a softer voice without his previous condescension, "Mr. Barton…Clint. You're on the brink of having a very nice life. You have a chance to join a stable, prestigious job with the police. You have a very pretty fiancée, who I'm sure wouldn't be happy to hear about the things you screamed in this hallway today, should you continue to press your paranoid accusations. If you truly cared for Natasha, just let her make her statement in peace and let's close this damn case."

Clint stared at me with brooding intensity. Everything was quiet.

Clint sighed. "Natasha…"

I held my breath.

"You're fired. Hawkeye Investigations is closed so I can take the job offer. I won't question your claims because I never want to see either one of you again. You two really deserve each other. Good-bye."

He shoved Loki to the side and walked past me without even looking at me. I realized I probably would never see or speak to him again. I wanted to cry, but I still had to make my official statement.

Loki grabbed my hand. "That…went better than it could have."

"I just lost the man who felt like my only family."

"You have me now."

"I never did officially agree to marry you."

"Darling, you're unemployed. I don't think you have any other options."

I deadpanned, "Fine. I'll marry you."

"Someday, when our children ask the story of how mommy and daddy got together…"

"Let's just…"

We both finished simultaneously, "Lie."

Loki squeezed me. "See, we're finishing each other's sentences already. We're perfect for each other."

To Be Continued in the Epilogue


	21. Chapter 21

Avengers Noir Chapter 21

By Cadet Deming

Rated T for violence, death, and adult content. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Natasha/Loki. Thank you so much to the people who have read and reviewed

Epilogue

I finished buttoning up my wedding dress. It was ivory, since it wasn't considered appropriate for a second time bride to wear white. That color was supposed to symbolize a first time bride's "purity." I certainly didn't feel pure, and doubted I ever would again.

Underneath my slip, I wore padding to make me look slightly pregnant. The dress was cut in the Empire style so it would look like I was trying to hide a growing stomach. I wondered if I was the first woman in history to pretend to be pregnant, while pretending to try to hide expecting a baby.

To avoid suspicion over marrying me so quickly, Loki had the idea to make it seem like we were expecting, and then to fake a miscarriage. Loki's secrets had secrets.

Hela asked, "Where are the flowers I'm supposed to carry? And please don't lie to me."

Hela was decked out in a green flower girl dress. She had a custom-made veil to cover the deformed left side of her face. After she was released from the hospital, Loki had lavished her with a wardrobe to cover her scarred half.

"Your father was supposed to pick up our flowers. And please don't be rude."

"How was I being rude? You and daddy say 'Don't lie to me' to each other all of the time."

Ah, the innocent blunt truthfulness of children.

I said, "It's rude for a child to say that to an adult."

"Do I have to call you mommy now?"

It was a touchy issue for me.

"Do you feel bad calling me mommy?"

"I miss my real mommy. I wish I had died with everyone else in the fire. If I was with the dead, no one could ever leave me again."

I kneeled down to her level. "Sweetie please, be glad you're alive. You have your whole future ahead of you. I'm not trying to replace your mommy. Sigyn and I are different women. Very, very different women. I can't be like her, but I'll be the best stepmother to you I can be. "

"But when you and daddy have the new baby, you'll be his or her real mother, but not mine."

"I promise I won't treat you differently, birth mother or stepmother."

Hela hugged me. I turned so she wouldn't feel the padding at my waist. She held her scarred side against my skin, but for her sake I didn't flinch.

"Thank you Natasha. I'll call you stepmommy now."

"You're welcome."

"Grandma Frigga still doesn't like you."

Of course she didn't. I knew her for what she truly was. I resisted the urge to tell Hela her Grandma Frigga is a murdering bitch.

I said, "Unfortunately, a lot of women don't get along with their mother-in-laws. But we can just try to be civil."

"Civil is what adults mean by not saying true things."

I looked into her eyes, so much like her father's. Would she grow up to be just like him, and lie about everything? Was it even my place to do or say anything about it? By marrying him, I was condoning him. I couldn't pretend to myself that I was any better than he was.

I said, "Civil is trying to treat other people like we want to be treated. If we're mean to people, they could get mad and try to get back at us."

I heard a knock on the door and Loki called out, "Darling, are you decent? The photographer is here for our pre-ceremony pictures."

I responded and Loki came in carrying my bouquet and Hela's basket of flower petals. He was elegance incarnate in his tailored waist-coat and vest. He beamed at me. I would have said he looked radiant, if his smile wasn't so damn smug.

Hela ran to him and hugged him. He kissed her on the cheek, squeezed her gently and handed her the basket.

Loki said, "How are my favorite girls in the whole wide world? You both look beautiful."

I had to give him credit. He was stepping up and becoming a better father.

I said, "If it's bad luck for a bride and groom to see each other the morning of the wedding, why do they photograph us together before the ceremony?"

He said, "To capture the wedding party at our freshest. Hela dear, could you run along and find your uncle Thor?"

Hela stared at us for a moment and left. Loki locked the door. He handed me my bouquet. It was filled with lilies. They just had to be lilies.

He said, "This is supposed to be the happiest day of your life. You could at least smile."

"It's my second marriage. I guess that makes it a tie for best day ever. Don't worry. I'll go into my perky mode in front of the guests."

I turned away from him and applied blush in a mirror.

He frowned. "Getting cold feet?"

I stayed silent.

Loki came up behind me and hugged my shoulders. He whispered, "What are you afraid of? I promise, this won't be a marriage like my parents. My legal parents. And it won't be like with Sigyn. You're almost my intellectual equal and there's passion between us. Real passion."

He put his hand under my chin and tilted me to kiss him. I responded physically, but doubts still clouded my mind. I pondered a life together built on mutual emotional blackmail, head games, and deceit.

I whispered back to him. "We'll have passion. But we'll never have trust."

"Trust is overrated. You lie as much as I do, if not more. I'm just more honest about it to myself. Besides, by virtue of the fact that we know we can't trust each other, we can trust each other not to trust each other, therefore we trust each other."

I frowned. "You really have a knack for twisting things into insane giant logic."

"It's a gift. Let's go pretend we're a happy, normal couple."

He led me to a room with the rest of the wedding party.

Frigga was trying to fasten a green silk bow tie around Thor's huge neck. I had heard of brides picking the most unflattering dresses possible to make their bridesmaids look bad, but Loki had managed to find the most hideous groomsman tuxedo for his brother.

Thor said, "You're strangling me, mother. It won't fit."

The photographer adjusted the umbrellas that reflected light in formal pictures. They looked like spider-webs.

The photographer turned around and called out, "Now that the bride and groom are here it's showtime! Places everyone. I just need a word with the groom first."

There was something familiar about him. He moved quickly, like a spider.

Loki said, "I know you. You're a pizza delivery boy."

The photographer frowned. "I'm not a pizza delivery boy, I'm a Chinese Food delivery man. Big difference. I'm Peter Parker, a photographer for the Daily Bugle. We met the night that gangster Laufey got killed."

Thor and Frigga turned to look at him.

Loki said, "I asked the Bugle to send me their best."

Peter said, "I am their best photographer. And you submitted your request for someone to take wedding pictures with very short notice."

Peter's eyes swung to my belly.

Loki sneered. "I wouldn't have picked you, but as I have no choice in the matter, get on with it. Just make us look good, or there will be a lawsuit."

Peter cocked his head to the side and stared at us.

He said, "I'll do my best, but I can only work with what I'm given."

Loki said, "Is that your attempt to be funny or witty or insult my fiancée?"

Peter said, "I was talking about my equipment."

I doubted that.

I muttered to Loki, "Could you please try to be civil to him? Any pictures he takes could last forever."

Loki shrugged and posed next to me.

Thor said, "I still can't get my tie on."

Hela said, "Daddy said the only reason he asked Uncle Thor to be the Best Man was because…"

I clamped my hand over Hela's mouth.

Peter said, "Everybody smile."

I faked a grin beneath the exposure of the flashing bulb and braced myself for life as the newest Odinson.

**A few weeks later**

I held the wedding picture in my hand. Everyone looked so pristine in it, even me.

Loki creaked open the front door. I checked my watch. It was 10:37 PM.

I whispered, "Hela is asleep. You're late."

Loki sighed, "I had to work late at the office."

"Again?"

"I had to cover for Thor."

When I was a private investigator covering cheating husband cases, "working late" was the classic flimsy excuse. I felt a twinge of paranoia.

I deadpanned,"Do you expect me to believe that?"

He didn't give me one of his smug smiles. He didn't start crying, or go on a rage-filled rant.

He simply said with ice in his voice, "You knew who I was when you married me. I'd ask you to bring me dinner, but you still haven't bothered to learn to cook. Bring me a drink please."

He had a point. I couldn't marry a scoundrel and expect him to turn into Prince Charming.

I wanted to scream on the inside, but kept my voice neutral. "You knew I wasn't the domestic type when you picked me. Why expect that to change?"

Loki rubbed his forehead. "Because my money pays for everything. If I ask you to change, you obey. Now bring me my bloody drink."

I seethed and went in to the kitchen. I prepared him a scotch on the rocks. I poured a vodka shot for myself.

I questioned why I put up with this, why I put up with him. It was from my guilt. My guilt over everything I had helped cover up in exchange for selling out to be a society wife. My guilt led to self-punishment.

I returned with drinks in hand. Loki took the scotch from me. His fingers felt as cold as the drink.

He smelled it suspiciously. "You didn't put anything in this did you? Because you know the terms of my will. If I die, you get nothing."

"I wouldn't dream of it. And if I die, a letter gets sent to the Daily Bugle confessing all of your family secrets."

He sneered. "You wouldn't dare."

"I'd be dead. I'd dare anything."

We stared at each other.

Loki started laughing, not full of mirth, but cruelty.

"Barton was right," he said. "You and I truly do deserve each other."

The doorbell rang. I answered it. Captain Steve Rogers and Clint stood before me, along with a bald black man with an eye patch.

He said, "I'm Nick Fury. We have a warrant for your husband's arrest."

Loki said, "Arrest for what? I was cleared. I was cleared, dammit!"

Clint smiled. He held up an envelope full of pictures. I saw he had a wedding ring on his finger.

He said. "We got new evidence in. Someone sent in some photographs of Loki breaking into Laufey's house the night he was murdered."

Loki said, "But, that's impossible. Who?"

Fury said, "He signed them "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman." Real good pictures too, professional quality. I ain't crazy about some vigilante getting involved in police business, but a windfall is a windfall."

I thought back. Professional quality pictures…someone who ran into Loki the night he killed Laufey…someone who tried to talk to Loki about it the day of our wedding but Loki blew him off…Peter Parker.

Loki said, "This is insane. Do you know who my family is? Rogers is best friends with my brother Thor. Thor would never stand for this."

Rogers said, "I did speak with Thor. He reported his gun missing on the day in question. It was the same caliber as the gun used to shoot Laufey, the day you got into a physical fight with him in the hospital. It would have given you a good opportunity to steal it from him to frame him. I guess you changed your mind after Gargan attacked you and gave you an easier target to blame."

Loki screamed, "I have witnesses! I'm innocent. Natasha tell them! Natasha, please!"

I stared at the monster I married. I looked at the three men of the law. They weren't looking back at me with any confidence.

I wasn't feeling confident, or triumphant, or happy. I was just sick of all the lies in my life.

I said, "Take him away. I'll tell you everything I know."

The End

**Author's Notes:**

**Thank you again to all who read and reviewed.**

**I debated how to end this, whether it should be happy or sad or bittersweet, or if Loki would end up getting away with it. I had an interesting time writing Loki as the gender-flipped version of a femme fatale who the PI knows is dangerous to get involved with, but gets seduced anyhow. I also struggled with how "evil" to make this version of Loki, and how vulnerable to make Natasha without making her seem weak or lose audience sympathy.**


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